Rodney Atkins Prepares To Launch First New Album In Eight Years

Rodney Atkins with his Curb Records team at his Caught Up In The Country album launch event at ONE at Cannery Row in Nashville. Photo: Photo credit: Molly Mantlow

Rodney Atkins celebrated his upcoming album, Caught Up In The Country, this week at a gathering at Nashville’s ONE at Cannery Row. Atkins’ first new album in eight years comes out May 10. The Curb Records crew also celebrated the success of his 2011 album, Take A Back Road, along with Atkins’ co-writers.

Atkins supposes he started making Caught Up In The Country around 2014. He wed fellow artist Rose Falcon—whose presence on the album is undeniable—in 2013.

“A lot of it was me writing with Rose,” Atkins tells MusicRow. “We met in 2012 and obviously started trying to write songs together. It kind of didn’t work [at first] because we wanted it to be the end-all, be-all of all songs. That process took a while for us to figure out we needed to just write a freaking song. Once we clicked, man, it changed everything. It changed how I wrote with other people. So it was constant from 2014.”

“My Life,” which was released early, is a direct implantation from Rose’s life onto the album. It is inspired by her grandparents’ 71-year marriage, and written when her grandmother passed in 2017.

Known for his father-son hits like “Watching You” and “He’s Mine,” Atkins continues the story on Caught Up In The Country with “Young Man.”

“So we had ‘Watching You,’ and then ‘He’s Mine,’ so that’s young, teenage boy getting in trouble,” he said. “And then this is the next place for where [my son] Eli is at. Saying, ‘It’s okay, quit trying to be cool and just be where you are.’ It definitely is a purposeful message to him—and to me!”

Atkins also includes his version of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” on the album. ”I’ve heard other people cover that song before but they’re pretty much just trying to do Isbell, and I knew I couldn’t do Isbell,” he said. “I had to hopefully make it my own thing, and not even try to be him because what he does is unbelievable.”

Atkins worked with Ted Hewitt again on this record, and brought on Blake Bollinger on to do a few tunes, as well.

“Two of my secret weapons when making records are Kim Keyes and Vicki Hampton. They are singing on several songs to make it big, and then Rose would come in and she would keep it in Williamson County,” he quips. “There’s a couple duets on there, she’s singing on almost everything.”

Caught Up In The Country is available for pre-order now.

Pictured (L-R): Luke Laird, Laurel Kittleson (VP of Artist Development & A&R, Curb Records), Marv Green, Rhett Akins, Atkins, Ted Hewitt, and Bob Regan. Photo credit: Molly Mantlow

Pictured (L-R): Bob Regan, Rhett Akins, Ted Hewitt, Atkins, and Luke Laird. Photo credit: Molly Mantlow