Maren Morris to leave country music and turn a new page

Musician Maren Morris admitted that she wants to branch outside country music.

Morris sat down with the Los Angeles Times for an interview published Friday to discuss the current state of the genre. Lately, songs from the genre have topped the charts, such as Oliver Anthony‘s “Rich Men North of Richmond” and Jason Aldean‘s “Try That in a Small Town.”

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“But the stories going on within country music right now, I’ve tried to avoid a lot of it at all costs. I feel very, very distanced from it,” Morris told the outlet, “A lot of the drama within the community, I’ve chosen to step outside out of it.”

The latest release from Morris, “The Tree,” included shots of a city sign that reads: “Welcome to Our Perfect SMALL TOWN From Sunrise to Sundown.” This came weeks after Aldean released his hit song about small towns. Houses in the music video featured yard signs that read other classic conservative rallying cries like “GO WOKE GO BROKE” and “DON’T TREAD ON ME.” At the end of the video, Morris lights a match to set the tree and nearby town on fire before she walks away. This song is also the first out of Columbia Records instead of its Nashville division, under which Morris previously was contracted.

Aldean’s song was criticized beyond its lyrics, including its music video, which included footage of the Black Lives Matter riots from 2020. The footage was later edited out.

Morris went on to discuss the history of country music, which she claimed to the outlet is rooted in racism and misogyny. Her lyrics in “The Tree” echo her sentiment, as they read: “I’m done fillin’ a cup with a hole in the bottom/I’m takin’ an axe to the tree/The rot at the roots is the root of the problem/But you wanna blame it on me.”

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“After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display. It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic. All these things were being celebrated, and it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music,” Morris explained. “I call it butt rock.”

“The Tree” has fewer than 150,000 views on YouTube since its premiere Friday.