Hot Beer - EP

When Dillon Carmichael released his debut album, Hell on an Angel, in 2018, fans and critics were quick to dub the Kentucky-born singer-songwriter a new savior of country music, including him alongside other much-lauded artists like Luke Combs, Jamey Johnson, and Tyler Childers. Carmichael’s profile only grew as he toured in support of the album. On his follow-up EP Hot Beer, he infuses his traditional, often ballad-driven style with a healthy dose of humor and some dance-worthy beats. “In my past, I was very satisfied with those records,” Carmichael tells Apple Music. “But there was one puzzle piece missing, and that is tempo, and a little bit of humor and a little nod to tongue-in-cheek.” That humor is especially apparent in the title track, which likens reuniting with an ex-flame to chugging a bottle of warm suds, and the closer, “Sawin’ Logs,” a laugh-out-loud snapshot of a man whose significant other is too busy snoozing to get busy. Below, Carmichael walks Apple Music through several of Hot Beer’s key tracks.

Hot Beer
“I was born in the ’90s and love ’90s country. Joe Diffie’s one of my biggest heroes. He had a song called ‘Pickup Man’ that was literally about, ‘I met all my wives in traffic jams because I’m a pickup man.’ And I just loved that, and I thought that country music, maybe, nowadays might lack a little bit of that humor. We need a good laugh, and I think everyone can agree with that.”

Big Truck
“I come up with all my song ideas in the shower. I was literally in the shower going, ‘She says she loves me for my big heart and my belt buckle and all that kind of stuff, but I think she really just, I think she loves me for my big truck.’ It’s just another humor thing, and just an uptempo, good rocking melody. ‘Big Truck’ is probably my favorite song on the record.”

Lucky Man
“My uncle Eddie is half of Montgomery Gentry, and they recorded that song originally. And I, being a fan of Montgomery Gentry—that turned out to be my favorite song that they ever recorded. And so, it’s a nice tribute to my family legacy, but it’s also a tribute to the late Troy Gentry, who I loved dearly. But it’s also a reminder that we’re lucky to have woken up this morning.”

Somewhere She Ain’t
“When I write songs, I kind of play the scenario out in my mind, whether I’ve experienced it myself or I’m stepping in the shoes of someone else. I’ve always wanted to write that song about lost love, and you’re trying to run from it and escape it, but yet it continues to follow you around everywhere you go. And I’ve attempted to write that concept in other songs in the past, but we were blessed that day with just the perfect melodies and the perfect lyrics to express that idea. And also, it’s another nod to the kind of country music I grew up on. It reminds me of Brooks & Dunn a little bit. And I think it’s a special message.”

Since You’ve Been in It
“I’m just so happily in love right now, and I haven’t had that in the past. And this song came about right in the midst of that. And I heard this song that you might be familiar with called ‘Why Don’t We Just Dance’ by Josh Turner—it has this Texas swing thing to it. And I went in that day to write, and I said, ‘I really want this two-step and Texas swing thing.’ And then the lyrics just kind of poured out of us, like a gift from God, just poured out.”

Sawin’ Logs
“I always have fun singing that one. My producer, Phil O’Donnell, sent it to me around February 2020, and that just became our summer jam of 2020. We laughed so hard every time we heard it. I decided a few months ago to release an acoustic, cell-phone recording version on TikTok, and it hit 2.5 million views in a very short amount of time. And so, it was kind of a no-brainer at that point that we needed to record it and release it. Even then, it was not planned to be on the album. It was after the unbelievable support of that song that we decided it needed to be on the EP.”