Happy heartbreak song written by Ben Burgess and Kevin Kadish honored at No. 1 party
By Preshias Harris
Some songs just hit you right away, and that’s how it was for Morgan Wallen when he heard the demo for “Whiskey Glasses.”
“I heard it and we were like, Hell yeah!” said Morgan during the media meeting prior to the presentations. He and the song’s two writers, Ben Burgess and Kevin Kadish were at the Sutler in Nashville on Monday, July 29 to celebrate the chart-topping success of “Whiskey Glasses.” The song is the third single from Morgan’s debut album, If I Know Me, produced by Joey Moi. The celebration was hosted by ASCAP and BMI.
Morgan received national attention when he competed on season 6 of The Voice in 2014 where he joined Team Usher and was later ‘stolen’ by Team Adam Levine. Although Morgan was ultimately eliminated in the Playoffs, his performance led to a record deal with Big Loud Records and the album If I Know Me.
Morgan knocked Blake Shelton from No. 1 spot
I reminded Morgan that “Whiskey Glasses” had knocked Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country” off the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. I said that must have been a strange feeling, particularly as Blake had been a Coach when Morgan competed on The Voice.
Morgan agreed. “’God’s Country’ is one of my favorite Blake Shelton songs he’s ever had,” said Morgan. “And one of my best friends, [Michael] Hardy, was a writer on that, so I got to talk a little trash to him about that! But I knew “God’s Country” would probably end up back up there [at No. 1] so I didn’t feel too bad for him.”
I asked Morgan how he had he narrowed down all the songs he could have cut to the fourteen tracks that are on the album, If I Know Me.
“It’s not the easiest thing,” he admitted. “I have a really good team that helps with that. What we do is, they ask me if I like a song, or if I write a song and I tell them that I like it, we put it on a song link. I’ll just listen to it periodically to see which songs stick and see which ones fade. It takes some time, for me anyway. Sometimes you hear a song and you know for a fact, like ‘this is not going anywhere.’ Sometimes you’re real high on a song then a couple of weeks later, you’re like, ‘I don’t know, I don’t think it’s as good as I thought it was when I wrote it,’ or whatever. So we just go through a process.”
Morgan’s ‘team process’
Morgan described the team process to selecting songs. “We’ll have a couple of meetings, we’ll have a white board with the songs listed. We’ll all go around and say, ‘what do you think about this one? Do you think this is an album cut? Do you think this is a single? Do you think this is a Song of the Year type of song? Is this just a barely making it type of song?’ And we’ll just figure out from that moment on, which ones that we collectively all feel strongly about. I have a very understanding group of people, too. If I feel strongly about a song, like ‘I need this song,’ they’ll say ‘all right.’”
That was the process, Morgan said of ‘grinding down’ the list of potential songs to the fourteen cuts that are on If I Know Me. He noted that the process has started all over again as he and his team at Big Loud Records start planning for the next album.
“Honestly, I just write songs”
Turning to Kevin Kadish, I said I knew he co-wrote and produced “All About That Bass” for Meghan Trainor. It was a huge hit and had 1.7 billion YouTube views. It was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year at the Grammys. I asked him if he has a different approach writing for and producing country acts compared to pop or rock acts.
“Honestly, I just write songs,” said Kevin. “I don’t have anything in mind when I’m writing, really. I just try to write the best song of the day. Sometimes you have to adjust the vernacular for different genres. You can get away with certain things in pop that I think you can’t really get away with, lyrically, in country. But I think a great song is a great song at the end of the day.”
Kevin went on to say that he is never sure that a song is going to be a hit. As a songwriter, he feels that it’s out of his control, because even if it’s a great song, if people don’t like it, it doesn’t matter.
Morgan had met up with Ben Burgess when he first moved to town. It was cool, he said, that he could cut a song written by Ben, particularly one that hit him in such a special way.
‘Cat Daddy’ gives Ben the good news
Ben Burgess recalled where he was when he heard that he had scored his first number one as a songwriter. It was during a week in Dallas and he’d gone up to just south of Austin with some friends. He got a text from ‘Cat Daddy’ – songwriter and Big Loud Records founder Craig Wiseman – saying “you got yourself one” so he stayed an extra day to celebrate.
Speaking of the success of “Whiskey Glasses,” Ben said it was just a testament to what a force Morgan is and this is just the beginning for him. Ben said he could picture them in thirty years from now in South Dallas, hearing that song and saying, ‘Wow, they’re still singing it!’
Morgan noted that although “Whiskey Glasses” is a heartbreak song – the guy has lost the girl – they didn’t want it to feel that way. He said when he sings that song, people in the audience don’t look sad at all and are all having a great time. They added little touches to make the song “sound drunk, nor sad,” said Morgan.
Real whiskey in the video?
The music video looks like there is a whole lot of whiskey being drunk. I asked Morgan if it was real whiskey for the video shoot, or just colored water.
“There was a little bit of sweet tea,” said Morgan with a laugh. “And a little bit of real whiskey. We started that video about 8:00 a.m. so if I’d have drank the ‘real thing’ the whole day, I would not have made it to the nighttime scene of that video. So we had a little bit of both!”
“Chasing You,” also from If I Know Me, is Morgan’s latest single. It was released July 29, the same day as the Number One party for “Whiskey Glasses.” “Chasing You” was written by Morgan with Jamie Moore and Craig Wiseman. The new single is already making an impact: it is this week’s “most added single” at country radio.
Morgan will be performing on a lot of stages for the rest of 2019. He continues down the road with Florida Georgia Line and their nationwide Can’t Say I Ain’t Country Tour through September. He will then support Luke Combs on the fall leg of Combs’ Beer Never Broke My Heart Tour.
Music and tour updates at Morgan’s website and on Facebook
Preshias Harris is a music journalist and music career development consultant with the emphasis on new and aspiring artists and songwriters. Her book, ‘The College of Songology 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s Need to Know Reference Handbook’ is available at www.collegeofsongology.com Follow her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com