“Springsteen possesses a classic female voice packed with angst and determination,” praises Billboard, as “you don’t deserve a country song” makes for a powerful start to the next era of Springsteen’s extraordinary career. In a stunning evolution of the sophisticated songwriting chops that inspired E! News to name her “one of Nashville's most buzzworthy emerging artists,” the defiant yet vulnerable anthem fully channels bouncing back from a painful relationship with more strength and power than ever before. Written by Springsteen, Mitchell Tenpenny, Geoff Warburton, Will Weatherly, and Michael Whitworth, “you don’t deserve a country song” also celebrates the freedom and fulfillment she finds in making music, boldly stating her refusal to immortalize her ex in song form: “You ain’t worth three chords and the truth.” In a particularly brilliant twist, the track’s second verse nods to classic Country songs like Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon,” as Springsteen gets specific in letting her ex know just how far she’s come in healing her heart.
“I have a tendency to let my feelings consume me, whether they’re good or bad,” shares Springsteen. “That’s why I ended up becoming a songwriter, so I could have a productive outlet for those emotions and all of that turmoil. This song is my attempt to reclaim my power after my ex took so much of it away from me. It’s about finding my confidence and getting to a place where I could start to trust myself and my judgment again. Most importantly, it’s a reminder to myself about the importance of living in the present and being grateful for all of the ‘once in a lifetime’ moments I’ve been lucky enough to experience recently. When that relationship fell apart, I was on my dream tour traveling the country in a tour bus getting ready to play my first arena. I listen to this song now, and those joyful moments are the ones I remember – not the sadness – and it makes me happy that I was able to truly take in all of the excitement happening around me.”
Produced by Chris LaCorte (Sam Hunt, Cole Swindell) and co-produced by Will Weatherly (Dustin Lynch, Dylan Scott), “you don’t deserve a country song” encompasses a larger-than-life yet beautifully detailed sound perfectly suited to Springsteen’s unbridled self-expression – an element echoed in her soul-stirring vocals and impassioned performance on acoustic and electric guitar. Built on a radiant arrangement of forward-pushing rhythms, cascading guitars, and gorgeously lush textures, the song takes on an unstoppable velocity before bursting into the bridge’s scorching guitar solo and unapologetic lyrics: “You don’t get to be the one they’ll think it’s about / You didn’t give me anything that’s worth writing down / You don’t get to tell your friends I can’t let you go / No, you don’t get to hear your name on the radio.”
“I love the bridge we got on this song,” Springsteen points out. “I approached it as my chance to tell him what I needed to say without seeing him face-to-face. When things were good between us, we used to talk about how I’d eventually write a song about our relationship, and we’d joke about him hearing his name on the radio. I tell that story when I sing this song live, and every time I get to the line, ‘You don’t get to hear your name on the radio,’ the audience really gets the weight of it and we feel that rush of empowerment together. It hits. It’s definitely a moment.”
A CMT Broadcast Premiere – appearing on the Paramount Times Square Billboard in New York City, as well as across CMT, CMT Music and CMT.com – is set for January 23 for the official music video for “you don’t deserve a country song.” Dropping a visualizer today (1/13), viewers will be left to wonder what the birthday cake with a single candle represents.
