There’s something appropriate about Riley Green naming an album That’s Just Me.
Because Riley doesn’t appear particularly interested in pretending to be anybody else.
Green released the album’s title track this week ahead of the full 19-song record arriving September 18.
And unlike a lot of modern Nashville releases with three, four or sometimes six songwriter names attached?
Riley wrote this one completely by himself.
The song itself isn’t complicated.
A guy can’t quite let go of a relationship.
He keeps calling.
She keeps not answering.
And eventually he realizes that when the phone rings, she already knows exactly who’s on the other end.
It’s just him.
That’s pretty much the song.
No elaborate concept.
No giant production trick.
Just an acoustic-driven country song about somebody who knows he should probably move on and hasn’t figured out how yet.
Which is probably why calling it “That’s Just Me” works on two levels.
It’s the guy in the song identifying himself.
But it also feels like Riley Green describing his entire approach to country music.
Green has talked quite a bit lately about the fact that he isn’t particularly interested in chasing whatever happens to be fashionable in Nashville.
He grew up listening to traditional country, spends his free time hunting and fishing, writes songs about the things he actually knows and has largely allowed his career to grow around that identity rather than constructing a new one.
That strategy seems to be working.
His rise was relatively gradual after “There Was This Girl” introduced him to country radio, but songs including “Worst Way” and “Don’t Mind If I Do” have pushed him into another level over the last couple of years.
Now he’s preparing to release his fourth studio album.
And in perhaps the biggest indication that Riley Green is no longer simply the guy slowly working his way up the country ladder, he’s also joining Season 30 of The Voice as a coach alongside Kelly Clarkson, Adam Levine and Queen Latifah.
That’s a pretty eclectic group.
Somehow Riley sitting there in a ball cap talking about whether somebody sounds believable feels completely on brand.
The new album arrives September 18.
Nineteen songs.
Plenty of country.
And judging from the title track, probably not much interest in reinventing Riley Green.
After all:
That’s just him.
