Gabby Barrett burst into the country music world with her explosive hit, "I Hope," released in 2019. The song and its remix with Charlie Puth earned the American Idol alum her first No. 1 hit as well as a CMT Award and two Billboard Music Awards. In addition to those accolades, the song's official music video boasts more than 111 million views, the version with Puth has 16m views and other lyric videos and performance videos of the song boast from 1m views up to 1.7m views. "I Hope" also showed off Barrett's vocal prowess, which she'd go on to showcase yet again on the sweet love song "The Good Ones," released in June 2020.
"I Hope" is a fiery breakup song directed at an ex for whom she holds no love, but "The Good Ones" is a bonafide love song dedicated to her love as well as all the other "good ones," or good men in the world. Released in the middle of the pandemic and co-written by Barrett, Zach Kale, Emily Landis, and Jim McCormick, the singer told The Boot that the song was inspired by her "good one," fellow Idol alum and husband Cade Foehner.
"At the time, when we were writing it — it was me, Zach Kale and a couple other people who wrote it last year — I had just been thinking of when we were dating, at the time during American Idol, people in my family would ask me, like, 'How's your boyfriend doing?' And I'd be like, 'Oh, he's good. He's a good one. He's a keeper,'" said Barrett.
"And I've heard other girls say that, too: like, 'Oh, he's a good one.' I've heard 'a good one' said a few times," she continued. "And so I was like, 'I need to write a song for the good ones, because with 'I Hope,' it's like, I don't want to give people this false hope of just saying all relationships stink and you can't ever trust anybody, because that's definitely not the case.'"
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Barrett clearly explains the kind of "good one" she's talking about in the song, spelling it out in the very first verse.
"He's a phone call to his parents / He's a Bible by the bed / He's the t-shirt that I'm wearin' / He's the song stuck in my head / He's solid and he's steady like the Allegheny runs / He knows just where he's goin', and he's proud of where he's from / One of the good ones / He's one of the good ones," she sings in an almost-lullaby type melody.
"The Good Ones" become the second No. 1 song for the Nashville-based singer/songwriter, reaching the top spot after a 10-month climb and holding there for three weeks. The song became the first one by a female to spend three weeks at the top of the country charts since Kelly Clarkson held the spot with Jason Aldean for "Don't You Wanna Stay" in 2011.
Both "I Hope" and "The Good Ones" are featured on Barrett's debut album, Goldmine, and both tunes have established Barrett as one of country music's brightest young stars, alongside artists like Luke Combs, Kelsea Ballerini and others. "The Good Ones" has already won a CMT Award for Female Video of the Year, and it is nominated for Song of the Year and Single of the Year at the 2021 CMA Awards, airing November 10th on ABC.
Other artists nominated in those categories include Chris Young and Kane Brown, Eric Church, Ashley McBryde, Chris Stapleton, and Luke Combs. In addition, Barrett is nominated for the second time in the New Artist of the Year category alongside Jimmie Allen, Ingrid Andress, Mickey Guyton and HARDY. She also makes her debut in the Female Vocalist of the Year category with Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde, Maren Morris and Carly Pearce.
Barrett is following up "The Good Ones" with a new song and her third official single, "Footprints On The Moon," also from her new album, released in June 2021. She released the official music video for the song on September 17, 2021.
