GEORGIA

In 2021, country superstar Jason Aldean dug into his Georgia roots on his 10th studio album MACON. The addition of companion album GEORGIA broadens the scope of this loosely conceptual project, which draws subtle inspiration from some of Aldean's own Georgia-born influences, like Trisha Yearwood and Otis Redding. MACON was a stacked affair, producing the smash Carrie Underwood duet "If I Didn't Love You." GEORGIA follows suit with a collection of slow-burn anthems ("Rock and Roll Cowboy," "Midnight and Missin' You") and tender moments ("Trouble With a Heartbreak," "Your Mama"), many of which were chosen from Aldean's deep vault with the express purpose of creating the kind of dynamic live set for which the country superstar has long been known.

"You have songs that are hits and then you have songs that are megahits," Aldean tells Apple Music. "There are certain songs we play that did really well and they were hits for us, no doubt. And then there're certain songs we play that make the roof come off, you know?" Appropriately, Aldean caps GEORGIA—as he did with MACON—with a handful of live songs, including performances of "Any Ol' Barstool" and "Blame It on You." Here Aldean talks through a few of the new project's key tracks.

“Trouble With a Heartbreak”
“[I thought], ‘Oh, this is cool and it's fresh and it's new.’ And so I just really leaned in [to that freshness] on a lot of these songs. ‘Trouble With a Heartbreak’ was one of those. It was just one of those songs I felt like I hadn't sung before. A lot of times I feel like, ‘Man, I love this song, but I feel like I've done that before.’”

“My Weakness”
“We had that song on hold for either the Rearview Town album or the 9 album. It was one of those two. Having 20 new songs on the record, we had a lot more spots for songs than we normally did. I remembered how much I loved the song, and I don't know why we didn't end up cutting it when we tracked it. I don't know if something else came in at the last minute, or we felt like it was too close to something else and we just backed off of it. So we basically just went in and redid some overdubs on the track, and I went in and sang it.”

“Your Mama”
“It's sung to my son, talking about how lucky we are to have his mom. And it was more of a love letter to him and her. It came from Tyler Hubbard of FGL. My wife, the first time I played it for her, she started crying. Then I played it for my mom and I'm like, ‘What do you think about it?’ And I'm my mom's only child, so she started bawling. I'm like, ‘Well, this thing is hitting a nerve with the mamas.’”