BOB KINGSLEY PRESENTS...50 YEARS OF THE COUNTRY RADIO HALL OF FAME featuring The Warren Brothers, Rhett Akins & Lori McKenna

The Warren Brothers are a songwriting duo that have written hits for Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift, Toby Keith, Keith Urban, Martina McBride, Dierks Bentley, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Chris Young to name a few. They started as recording artists and made 3 records for BNA records. Their sense of humor has landed them a series on CMT, celebrity judges on “Nashville Star”, part time radio personalities, and they’ve even had a few film cameos. They won a daytime Emmy for outstanding original song for “Good Afternoon America”. They were Nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Song “If You’re Reading This” (Tim McGraw) and CMA Song of the Year “Anyway” (Martina McBride). 

Rhett found his way to a professional music career when Decca Records (which had been reactivated then) heard one of his demos. He dropped his first album, A Thousand Memories, in 1995. The record was critically acclaimed and produced four chart singles including his first No. 1 hit, “That Ain’t My Truck,” which he also co-wrote. The song has since become Rhett’s signature song but his success story was just getting started. The following year he released Somebody New which produced another No. 1 hit, “Don’t Get Me Started.” 

Overall Rhett has had an extremely impressive career. He’s not just been a successful solo artist, he’s also written chart toppers for some big names. Rhett has had 31 No. 1 singles (and counting), which is remarkable!  Some of them include, Luke Bryan’s “I Don’t Want This Night to End and Huntin’ Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day,” Chris Young’s “I Can Take it From There,” Justin Moore’s “Point at You,”, Dustin Lynch’s “Mindreader” and Locash’s “I Know Somebody”.  Rhett’s also responsible for Blake Shelton’s “All About Tonight,” “Boys ‘Round Here” and “Honey Bee,” the latter of which spent a total of four weeks at No. 1. His Jason Aldean cuts include “When She Says Baby,” “Just Gettin’ Started” and “Tonight Looks Good on You.” He had another three week No. 1 with Thomas Rhett’s “It Goes Like This.” He also wrote TR’s “Get Me Some of That” and “Star Of The Show” which was co-written with, Thomas Rhett and their first No. 1 together.  In 2017, John Pardi’s “Dirt On My Boots” went No.1 and later that year, Dustin Lynch’s “Small Town Boy” spent 4 weeks at #1 on Billboard. Rhett celebrated with Thomas Rhett and fellow co-writers his 29th number one, “Life Changes” in 2018 and his 30th #1 with in the summer of 2019, “Look What God Gave Her”. In November of 2019, Rhett celebrated his 31st #1 with Brantley Gilbert’s “What Happens In A Small Town”. 

 This impressive list hasn’t gone unnoticed in the music industry. Rhett has been the recipient of renowned awards and titles. In 2010, Rhett was named the No. 4 Billboard Country Songwriter. The following year, BMI named him Songwriter of the Year. He won it again in 2014. His song “Honey Bee” became the highest selling digital debut by a country male solo artist. His biggest accomplishment, though, may be winning the CMA Triple Play award a total of seven times! The award is presented to a songwriter who penned three No. 1 singles in 12 months and he won it in October 2010, January 2012, February 2014, February 2015, February 2016, February 2017, and again in February 2018! In April 2018 Rhett was named Songwriter of the Year and in September 2019 names the first Songwriter of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music. In July 2021, Rhett was announced as a inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame class of 2021.

Lori McKenna titled her album 1988 after the year she married her husband, Gene, yet the 10 songs within also serve as a love letter to lifelong friendships, people she’s lost, and her family. Recorded with producer Dave Cobb in Savannah, Georgia, 1988 naturally has its nostalgic moments, even if not every ending is a happy one. 

With more of an electric edge than her past projects, 1988 feels in step with classic ‘90s albums by Sheryl Crow or Gin Blossoms, where the lyrics pulled you in as much as the melody or production. Playing together on acoustic guitars while facing one another in the studio, McKenna and Cobb tracked the album live, giving it a feeling of immediacy and authenticity. 

“I was trying to let my age and experience guide me through making a record I wished I’d made when I was younger,” she explains. “I really wanted it to sound like if I made a rock record in the ‘90s, and then I remembered that I made my first album in 1998. There's something so 30 years ago in my head about this record. In a way I wish I could start again and know what I know now.”

Back in the early days of her career, McKenna immersed herself in Boston’s singer-songwriter scene and self-released her debut album, Paper Wings & Halos. After issuing a couple of CDs on a New England folk label, the Nashville songwriting community discovered her singular ability to write about complicated emotions through simple words. Meanwhile, one of the lessons she’s learned from writing in Nashville is evident on the album’s first single, “Killing Me,” which she co-wrote with frequent collaborators Hillary Lindsey (who also sings on the track) and Luke Laird.

“I had that turn -- ‘Would it kill you to be happy because trying to make you happy is killing me.’ It’s like, ‘Pushing this boulder up the mountain is killing me. Can’t you just carry yourself for a minute?’” she says. “I know that feeling of being in that relationship with someone, and I know feeling of being in that relationship with myself, too. The play on words and the turns -- that all came from learning how great songwriters in Nashville write, because they're so good at that. They're so clever. When those things end up in the room, I always try to pay attention.”

However, fifteen years later, when Covid hit, McKenna often wrote alone, four or five days a week. One of the first songs to come from that solitude is “The Old Woman in Me,” which conveys the mutual respect between her current self and the imagined version that she hopes to meet someday.

“There's always a lot of discussion of, ‘What would I tell my younger self?’ I’d had one of those discussions one day, and thought, ‘Well, if we can write a letter to our younger selves, we can surely think about our older selves,” she recalls. “It was one of those songs that I knew right away was probably not going to be for pitch. I wouldn't be able to change the lyrics for it to apply to someone younger. It’s one of those songs that wanted to be my story and hopefully a story for the people that identify with me. I think we all focus on when we were younger, so it was fun to flip it. You end up developing this character that is you, that you actually really like.”

McKenna teamed up with her son, Chris McKenna, to write “Happy Children,” which bestows perhaps the kindest of wishes. In addition, “Days of Honey” and the title track offer an up-tempo yet realistic view of an enduring marriage. Describing a social landscape familiar to anyone from McKenna’s generation, “Growing Up” emerged from the bittersweet phone calls and text threads that sought to bring comfort as her closest friends were grieving the loss of their parents.

Throughout the second half of 1988, McKenna continues to delve into difficult situations with strength as well as sadness. “Wonder Drug” will resonate with anyone who’s watched someone battle opioid addiction, while “Town in Your Heart” unfolds like a letter to a brother who’s succumbed to alcoholism, written by the brother who’s left behind. Asked about her willingness to draw on such heavy themes, McKenna responds, “I think that I like the truth in writing songs like that -- that unfortunate truth that everybody encounters in their life.”

Although McKenna has won three Grammys in the Best Country Song category, among many other industry awards, she doesn’t spare herself from scrutiny. In “Letting People Down,” she’s standing in her garage, staring at milk crates full of trophies, and “wondering how it’s all such a blessing and why it’s all so damn hard.” 1988 then concludes with “The Tunnel,” a poignant and devastating narrative that ultimately ends with an uplifting message. The swell of a gospel chorus serves as a dynamic counterpoint to the intimacy of the lyrics, and it’s a striking contrast that McKenna plans to carry out on tour.

“I like doing solo shows, but I really like it when we’re all together,” she says. “That’s another reason why this record sounds the way it does. I really wanted it to sound like a band, because it’s so fun to play live that way. You think of Jason Isbell’s song, ‘Traveling Alone,’ and I never did that, but all of my friends did. I'm a serious homebody, so I don't love being gone, but I love playing the shows. And I also love Nashville and I love chasing songs with new people. And I feel like I really lucked out in the fact that I get to still make records. I literally cannot believe how lucky I am.”