Ryan Larkins’ “King of Country Music” – Billboard

For many years, Grand Ole Opry icon Roy Acuff wore the crown as nation’s main male, a title that was bolstered by the 1982 NBC particular Roy Acuff -— 50 Years the King of Country Music.

But that standing was by no means 100% unique or assured in perpetuity. In 1978, Newsweek proclaimed Willie Nelson the king of nation music in a canopy story, and TV Guide bestowed the identical honor on Garth Brooks in 1994. In more moderen years, that recognition has gone most frequently to George Strait.

Still, with some fluidity surrounding that nickname, singer-songwriter Ryan Larkins (“The Painter”) was stumped in September 2018 when his youngsters pressed him on the topic. He had been listening to a bundle of basic nation songs — Strait, Nelson, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Randy Travis — and when his oldest son requested who the king was, Larkins didn’t have a right away reply. But one would emerge.

“I was sitting at a red light on Charlotte Avenue,” he recollects, “and it just kind of hit me out of nowhere, like ‘I know exactly who the king of country music is.’ ”

The reply was so good that Larkins determined the thought wanted to be written: “The king of country music is the song.” He launched the hook to some of co-writers, J.R. McCoy and Will Duvall, throughout an appointment at Curb Music Publishing that month. They wanted no convincing to chase it down.

“Cool thing with this song,” says McCoy, “the song truly is the king of country music — because the song can’t die. That king is never going to be slayed. It will always live on forever.”

They began work by addressing the query — who’s the king of nation music? -— with an apparent train, contemplating what artists deserved these credentials. After batting round names, they threw George Jones and Merle Haggard right into a shortlist that shaped the primary three strains of the refrain: “Some say Jones, some say Travis/ Some say Strait, some say Haggard/ Are sittin’ on the throne.”

“Will came up with the Travis line,” McCoy recollects. “Even though it’s not a perfect rhyme with Haggard, it goes together so well.”

One extra was too apparent to skip. “Strait had to be in there somewhere,” says Duvall. “That’s his thing. He is the king of country music.”

The Acuff half of the controversy didn’t go ignored, although he’s such a historic determine at this time limit that they felt it’d confuse youthful nation followers. “I love classic country,” Larkins notes. “But we talked about it, and we thought, ‘OK, there are quite a few people who are not even going to know those names,’ which is a shame. But to drive that point home, I thought we needed to stick with recognizable names.”

The refrain ended, of course, by figuring out “the song” as king. Then they dug into the primary verse, focusing particularly on the locations the place that king is perhaps heard, together with the church, the radio and in cities “from Saginaw to Houston.” The first city was a nod to an artist they couldn’t slot in, the late Lefty Frizzell, whose final No. 1 single was the 1964 chart-topper “Saginaw, Michigan.” Houston likewise acknowledged Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Band’s last No. 1, “Houston (Means I’m One Day Closer to You).”

Verse two confirmed itself pretty simply. It centered on the connection between the track and the viewers, recognizing how “the 9-to-5’ers in the trenches” appreciated the sound of the metal guitar and fiddle, however really responded to the “three simple chords and the truth” in an ideal nation track.

“It wasn’t really pounding our heads against the wall,” says McCoy. “That second verse, I think that went quicker than the first verse and the chorus.”

The chord modifications from the basic period they had been celebrating usually would happen on the primary and third beats of a measure. But they saved “King” present by making these modifications on the after beat by most of the track. They didn’t focus on it. It simply occurred naturally, with Duvall main on guitar.

“We are writers in this time, and I think there was just something that felt natural about that,” he says. “The way that Ryan writes, those pushes didn’t feel off. Those actually felt right and fresh.”

Soon after they wrote it, Larkins performed songs for THiS Music president Rusty Gaston (now Sony Music Publishing Nashville CEO), who was so moved by “King of Country Music” that he had Larkins cease and begin over. When he completed, Gaston advised him it wanted a bridge. Larkins wasted no time; that evening, he known as Duvall, and it took them a mere 10 minutes to create the additional stanza. Since “King of Country Music” was in regards to the track, they determined to listing a number of: “I Saw the Light,” “I Walk the Line,” “Amazing Grace,” “Always on My Mind” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”

“King of Country Music” acquired Larkins a publishing deal, and it secured his first label contract when he met with Jay DeMarcus’ Red Street in 2022. It was the primary track in his audition, and DeMarcus — impressed by Larkins’ songwriting prowess and by his wealthy vocal tone — was tempted to signal him throughout that assembly, although he restrained himself for a day. DeMarcus and guitarist Ilya Toshinskiy co-produced “King,” with Toshinskiy inventing a melodic signature riff for the intro. The two additionally added a rising three-chord development that led to the hook.

While “King” was a celebration of the track, DeMarcus and Toshinskiy had been significantly delicate about framing Larkins himself.

“The one thing that was paramount to everything else in cutting music on Ryan was making sure that the voice was the centerpiece,” explains DeMarcus. “When you have a voice like that, that’s so effortless and so easy to listen to and easy to digest, the track has to complement the lyric and the delivery. It can’t get in the way.”

DeMarcus performed bass, plugged into the console so he might sit subsequent to the engineer, whereas Toshinskiy was stationed on the Starstruck studio flooring with drummer Jerry Roe, keyboardist Michael Rojas, metal guitarist Paul Franklin and guitarists Rob McNelley and Guthrie Trapp. The guitars and keyboards, particularly, utilized an ever-changing vary of tones, reflecting a spread of types which have supported nation’s biggest songs by the years. DeMarcus later overdubbed some new acoustic piano licks, significantly a fill close to the top of verse two that borrowed from the fashion of basic A-team musicians Floyd Cramer and Hargus “Pig” Robbins.

“The guitar parts, in particular, were something that we really, really concentrated on having the right mixture of traditional, really great country licks with laying down some great rhythm parts as well,” DeMarcus says. “The tune is so exposed, you need to make sure that the parts work together.”

Larkins minimize his last vocals at DeMarcus’ residence studio, overseen by a cardboard cutout of Cousin Eddie, Randy Quaid’s offbeat character from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. DeMarcus “pushed me,” says Larkins, “but it wasn’t an uncomfortable thing. I felt right at home.” “Anything I sang to him, he went right out and executed it,” DeMarcus provides. “It’s like taking a Ferrari out for a spin, you know. It’s really fun to have a voice like that to play with and just see what works.”

“King of Country Music” positively labored. Red Street launched it to nation radio through PlayMPE on Oct. 12 with a Nov. 27 add date. With the development towards ’90s nation, Larkins’ debut single arrives at an opportune second.

“I love where country music’s going right now — it feels like everybody’s welcome,” says Larkins. “But I feel this shift like, ‘Hey, we’re going to get a little more country here.’ And I love that.”