Maren Morris released two new songs – “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here” — and announced she’s leaving the country music industry. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Morris revealed that she’s leaving the country music genre, and moving forward will release music on Columbia Records, instead of Columbia Nashville. Morris opened up about her decision to “take a step back,” explaining that she’s felt “very, very distanced” from industry and its politics. When asked if it’s been a good year or a bad year for country music, Morris said: “I’ve tried to avoid a lot of it at all costs. I feel very, very distanced from it.”
Morris said she didn’t originally think of herself as a “political artist,” but her support for gender-affirming healthcare and addressing the lack of LGBTQ+ representation in country has made waves in recent years. Morris said: “After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display. It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic. All these things were being celebrated, and it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music. I call it butt rock.”
She explained she isn’t afraid of criticizing country music and its audience: “Country music is a business, but it gets sold, particularly to young writers and artists who come up within it, as almost a god. It kind of feels like indoctrination. If you truly love this type of music and you start to see problems arise, it needs to be criticized. Anything this popular should be scrutinized if we want to see progress.” She says she’s reached a point where she’s “kind of said everything I can say … I always thought I’d have to do middle fingers in the air jumping out of an airplane, but I’m trying to mature here and realize I can just walk away from the parts of this that no longer make me happy … I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over, but it’s burning itself down without my help.”
Listen to ‘The Tree’ – here;
and ‘Get the Hell Out of Here’ – here.
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