Maren Morris Doesn’t Want to Abandon Country Roots on Second Album

"I'm from Texas. Those will be my roots and I think all of the lyrics for my songs are very country structured like the way that they're written,” Morris explained.

Written by Kelly Brickey
Maren Morris Doesn’t Want to Abandon Country Roots on Second Album
Maren Morris; Photo by Mindy Small/FilmMagic

For a brief moment, some country fans thought Maren Morris was jumping across genre lines into the pop world when she signed on to tour with Niall Horan and collaborated with Zedd on “The Middle.” But the singer has no intentions of leaving behind the community that built her up.

Morris is currently in the studio and the writing room finding inspiration for her sophomore release, and she’s letting any spark hit her for that special creative moment. Regardless of what category her songs fall into, she reveals that country music stole her heart many years ago and she has no plans on leaving it behind despite her recent ventures outside of the Nashville realm.

“I will say I don’t want to stray too far from my roots in the sophomore album because I think a lot of artists get caught in that trap of being like, ‘Oh, I want to do something so unexpected that no one’s going to get it,’ that fell in love with the first album. I think I’ll always be rooted in country. I’m from Texas. Those will be my roots and I think all of the lyrics for my songs are very country structured like the way that they’re written,” Morris explained to Sounds Like Nashville and other media at her recent No. 1 party.

It’s not to say that Morris didn’t enjoy working with other musicians beyond her Music City peers; she definitely learned from each experience and collaboration she’s notched under her belt. But her soulful mix of a voice will always lead her back to the genre she calls home regardless of what the critics think.

“When it’s your own album and it’s your own piece of your story, I don’t want to stray too far from where I started because that’s me. But it’s fun to try on these different hats with other people’s projects because you can kind of slip in to those roles and just have fun with it, but I think I’ll always be rooted where I started, which is country, a little bit pop, a little bit ’90s. That’s all kind of the place,” she said.

Morris’ current single, “Rich,” can be heard on country radio now.