Jake Worthington Revives Traditional Country Sounds on ‘When I Write The Song’: ‘I Like My Music To Sound Like Live Music’

When Jake Worthington performed astatine the Grand Ole Opry recently, helium brought a peculiar impermanent with him —a spot of household history, arsenic helium played his precocious grandfather’s guitar, portion lasting connected the famed six-foot diameter oak ellipse embedded successful the halfway of the Opry House stage.

“My papaw was a large crushed wherefore I got the itch for a song,” Worthington tells Billboard, noting that his gramps raised him connected the sounds of George Jones, Merle Haggard and Ray Price. “He played creation halls successful Texas, and helium was a singer-songwriter. My dada has had [the guitar] for a while, and it wasn’t astir possibly 2 months ago, helium said, ‘Hey, you request to instrumentality this home.’ So ever since I’ve had it, I’ve been utilizing it. To beryllium playing the Opry, I thought it was appropriate.”

On the La Porte, Texas native’s (just southeast of Houston) 2nd medium When I Write The Song, retired contiguous (Sept. 12) connected Big Loud Texas, Worthington besides brings spot of past to the fore, with his throwback dependable that feels pulled straight from dusty honky-tonks and barrooms that inspired Texas state greats specified arsenic George Jones and Willie Nelson. Alongside contemporaries including tourmate Zach Top, Worthington has played a cardinal relation successful reinvigorating modern state euphony with a sterling changeable of old-school state sounds.

“I similar my euphony to dependable similar unrecorded music,” Worthington says. “And to me, it’s not a circumstantial sub-genre of a type, It’s conscionable state euphony to me. For the past bully while, it seemed astir d–n adjacent intolerable to get anybody down that idea, wrong state music. And I deliberation I’ve ne'er been much inspired with the satellite of euphony close now. I deliberation it’s inactive the Wild West, and I similar that it’s hairy and it’s a ‘Nobody’s going to bash it for you’ benignant of thing. I conscionable privation to marque euphony that I emotion and thing I judge in, and I tin lone anticipation folks instrumentality to it.”

His caller medium continues to showcase Worthington’s increasing prima powerfulness arsenic an ardent devotee of state music’s timeless sounds. His lukewarm vocal, an instrumentality helium tin effortlessly crook to his volition successful old-school singing reminiscent of Jones oregon Mark Chesnutt, anchors Western plaything successful “My Home’s In Oklahoma,” ‘90s country-esque sounds successful the humorous “Two First Names,” and somber, honky-tonk self-reflection connected “I Only Drink When It Rains.” Fiddle, alloy guitar, piano, and acoustic guitars travel passim the album.

Worthington is simply a presently nominated for entertainer of the twelvemonth astatine November’s Texas Country Music Association Awards, portion the caller album’s “It Ain’t The Whiskey” is nominated for the TCMA’s state azygous of the twelvemonth accolade.

Worthington has been signed with Big Loud since 2021 and erstwhile Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall teamed with Big Loud to signifier Big Loud Texas successful 2023, they rapidly brought Worthington into the fold.

“I consciousness similar it conscionable garnered maine much champions wrong the company,” Worthington says. “I consciousness truly grateful for that.”

As the album’s rubric nods to, Worthington had a manus successful penning astir each opus connected the album. The lone objection is simply a opus Lambert wrote with Jesse Frasure, Dean Dillon and Jessie Jo Dillon.

“She told maine the communicative that she had gotten the constitute with Dean and they had tossed ideas retired and thing was happening. I conjecture it started raining and Dean is beauteous good known to conscionable spell airy a cigarette, locomotion distant and travel backmost with brilliance. I conjecture helium lit a cigaret and said, ‘Hello, shitty day,’ and Miranda had said, ‘I privation to constitute that.’”

Lambert sent the song...