Almost two years ago, Scotty McCreery got dropped from his label deal. Undeterred, McCreery self-released his single "Five More Minutes," which made history as the first independently released country song to chart in the Mediabase Top 50. Now McCreery has follow-up single "Wherever You Are" on deck to continue his impressive rebound.
McCreery just released the song after signing a new deal with new independent label Triple Tigers. He co-wrote the song with Frank Rogers (Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker) and Dan Isbell.
The new tune joins "Five More Minutes" as the first tastes of songs off his upcoming album Seasons Change. Amazingly, McCreery hasn't released a full record since 2013. And that's pretty much a lifetime for country music.
Inspired by his fiancé, "Wherever You Are" is a reliably consistent song. While "Five More Minutes" earned early praise for its nostalgic undertones, "Wherever You Are" feels a lot more straightforward.
It is, in a word, a "safe" choice for a new tune to release. The defining characteristic of McCreery's career to date has been his boyish charm mixed with his "there's no way that's his voice" bass vocal. While "Wherever You Are" doesn't want for charm in theory, it lacks any really earth-stopping moment.
McCreery's first album in 2011, Clear As Day, had the country world excited for a bit of a Randy Travis revival. But 2013's See You Tonight fell victim to bro country trends and ultimately stalled his career.
With "Five More Minutes," fans again saw those signs of greatness. "Wherever You Are" is a decently fine tune, but it doesn't bring that same "I need to hear this again" factor.
In other words, our first listens of McCreery's new album are both extremely promising and a little underwhelming. But McCreery's core fans never abandoned him, and "Wherever You Are" should satisfy them just fine.
