NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Imagine you come from a small town in Texas and you have big dreams of being a country music star. Imagine those aspirations come true, tenfold: You win a couple Academy of Country Music Awards, a CMT Music Award and you have a couple platinum singles to your name. What's next?
If you're it's new challenges. Surpassing his wildest expectations meant reveling in the carte blanche that follows 鈥 the freedom to do whatever you want. For the 33-year-old singer, that's the release of his fifth full-length project, a self-titled album out Friday.
鈥淚 would hang my hat on this record seven days a week,鈥 he says of the album. 鈥淚t's just the most focused I've ever been.鈥
He's self-assured now, but the road to 鈥淧arker McCollum,鈥 the album, wasn't so steady. He originally recorded half a full-length with his longtime collaborator, producer Jon Randall. It wasn't working. 鈥淚 was comfortable,鈥 McCollum says. 鈥淚 was like, 鈥業 gotta go get as uncomfortable as I can.鈥濃
So, he scrapped what he had, went to New York, worked with a new producer, Frank Liddell Lee Ann Womack, Chris Knight), and recorded what became the final album in a week.
鈥淚t sounds absolutely ridiculous when you say it out loud,鈥 McCollum says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a crazy way to do it, but I think it worked.鈥
It helped that McCollum had most of the songs written. 鈥淚 wrote 鈥楶ermanent Headphones鈥 when I was 15. I wrote 鈥楳y Blue鈥 in 2019. I wrote a lot of songs last year,鈥 he says. Still, they cut 鈥渁 couple songs a day.鈥 He credits Liddell for pulling the best songs out of him, as well as New York's industrious energy, for helping him realize the record.
鈥淚'm glowing when I'm there,鈥 he says of the city. 鈥淲hen I was in high school dreaming about being on a major label cutting records, you know, 'It鈥檚 going to be in New York City and it鈥檚 gonna be ... like a movie. And, you know, I just decided to try and actually do that.鈥
The album possesses that vigor, from the slow-building, 鈥淣ew York Is On Fire鈥 to more country-and-then-some fare: 鈥淪olid Country Gold,鈥 鈥淪unny Days,鈥 and 鈥淲hat Kinda Man.鈥
There's also a spirited cover of Danny O鈥橩eefe's folk classic 鈥淕ood Time Charlie鈥檚 Got The Blues鈥 with fellow the album's sole feature. 鈥淚've played that song my entire life,鈥 McCollum says.
He thought, 鈥淭hat song is going to be cut at some point or another in my career. Might as well make it now.鈥
The narrative opener 鈥淢y Blue鈥 was the first song McCollum and Liddell recorded in the studio, and it was 鈥渁 breeze,鈥 as McCollum describes it, "And the worst thing happened that could have possibly happened.鈥 They thought the rest of the process would be effortless, but that's not how it goes. 鈥淚t was just an absolute emotional grind for the next six and a half days. But I wouldn鈥檛 have it any other way.鈥
That led to experimentation, too. 鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted to be And the more that I listen to what I do, I鈥檓 like, 鈥楾his doesn鈥檛 really sound like country music to me,鈥 which is hard to put your thumb on nowadays, of course, It鈥檚 just not as narrow as it used to be. But I鈥檓 like, I just don鈥檛 really even care anymore. You know, maybe I鈥檓 not a country singer. I don鈥檛 know. I don鈥檛 give a (expletive) anymore. Whatever it is that I do sound like, you know, that鈥檚 what I wanna do.鈥
As long as the songs 鈥渕ake you feel something.鈥
That's something fans have long connected to, since the release of his debut, 鈥淭he Limestone Kid,鈥 a decade ago.
鈥淚t really eats at me to put out music that hits you where music hits me,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 really enjoy that chase and that journey of, 鈥楢m I going to write songs that are good enough?鈥 ... I鈥檓 trying to find those answers.鈥