In 2020, Brett Young entered a phase in his career that found him facing a new and what seemed like a daunting challenge as a songwriter. He had always strived to be authentic in his writing, delving into subject matter that allowed him to draw from his personal experiences, but he was now married to his longtime girlfriend, a woman he literally says is the love of his life, and a father of two little girls. Young knew his happy life wouldn’t make for a compelling album.
“It would have been really tempting to just write basically a lullabies record, love songs about my wife and songs about my children,” Young said in a recent phone interview. “So the challenge was that you can’t write just about what you’re going through in your life right now. That’s going to be boring.
” Young answered the songwriting challenge — both on his new album, “Across The Sheets,” and his 2020 release, “Weekends Look A Little Different These Days” — by learning a new skill with his songwriting after partnering with some co-writers who have been around the block. They knew how to put an authentic personal touch on a lyric and honestly convey a variety of emotions no matter what was happening in their lives at the time. Young is sharing his new music on a tour that brings him to the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom on Friday.
“It’s hard when you’re in the happiest place in your life and you’ve got to still write a sad song, and we did,” Young said. “I’d get in with a songwriter or a couple of songwriters and I’d be like ‘Tell me about your worst heartbreak. Explain that to me.
’ We started having to go down that path, and that was a new stage of songwriting for me. Don’t just do what you’re feeling right now, here’s a topic, go back to a place where you did feel this way and write it. And we did that.
I think it stretched me in a really good way as a songwriter and it’s something that now isn’t so daunting to me because I know how to do that now.” This new approach to songwriting is very evident on both “Across The Sheets” and “Weekends Look A Little Different These Days.” With the latter album, Young pulled from various moments of their romantic journey, which included three breakups before they decided they truly should be together.
“For us, our story wasn’t linear anyway,” Young said. “I met Taylor, this Thanksgiving it will be 17 years ago. So we have a long, storied history.
” “Across The Sheets” continues down a similar lyrical path. There are songs that celebrate love, such as “Dance With You,” which can be seen as a song of devotion either to Taylor or to Young’s children. Often, however, Young explores the muddier corners of love.
In “Love Goes On,” Young muses about the resilience of a special love that allows for multiple chapters to happen in a relationship. The song “Uncomfortable” touches on both the thrill of having a beautiful wife or girlfriend — and the fear that someone else will be just as smitten. “Let Go Too Soon” can easily be seen as having been inspired by one of those periods where Young and his future wife weren’t together, while “I Did This To Me” sees Young taking the blame for a breakup.
Like his history with Taylor, Young’s musical life has been a journey that had its share of frustrations before things fell into place for the 43-year-old singer/songwriter. Starting out in the Los Angeles area, he released a pair of EPs and three albums independently, hoping to get a record deal. But Young’s career remained stuck in neutral until he realized his songs actually were well suited to country music, prompting a move to Nashville.
There, Young quickly made contacts, and within nine months, signed with Big Machine Records. It’s been off to the races ever since. His self-titled debut album gave him his first No.
1 country hit, “In Case You Didn’t Know,” and another single, “Sleep Without You,” that reached No. 2 on Billboard magazine’s Country Airplay chart. Young’s second album, “Ticket To L.
A.,” added two more No. 1 country singles, “Here Tonight” and “Catch,” to Young’s arsenal.
“Weekends Look A Little Different These Days” gave Young another No. 1 single in “Lady.” Now comes “Across The Sheets,” which remains squarely in Young’s wheelhouse of pop/country mid-tempo material and ballads.
For awhile, Young worried that he might have to leave even some of his popular ballads out of his concerts to keep his shows from getting too sleepy for audiences. But as his current shows demonstrate, he’s found that his fans aren’t worried about the pace of his concerts. “What we’ve found out is that people aren’t thinking about that at my shows.
They bought a Brett Young ticket,” Young said. “They came to hear the music that they know. So every time we try to kind of inauthentically ramp it up for the sake of ramping it up, they’ve felt like they missed out on a song or two they wanted to hear.
So it’s been less about the set list and more about paying attention to my fan base and what they’re actually coming to the show for.”.
