Charlie Worsham will release his new EP – Compadres – tomorrow, a joyful celebration of friendship.
Charlie Worsham has earned an immense amount of respect and admiration in Nashville since the release of his debut album in 2013. He is a celebrated singer, songwriter and instrumentalist who has built a strong creative community in his corner. Now, tomorrow, he releases his new project Compadres – a five-track album that features a segment of that community, with some of his closest collaborators and champions – Dierks Bentley, Luke Combs, Elle King, Kip Moore and Lainey Wilson. It’s a charming and joyful project that brims with musical chemistry, as a true celebration of friendship – not least in the production of the project by Jaren Johnston.
The project opens with a plucky little track about the town that made Worsham and about finding himself after leaving home. Here, he teams up with Elle King to provide a swirling delight of a track about the importance of home and keeping your roots. (‘Ain’t it funny how you gotta leave home sometimes to find it.’) This before teaming up with Lainey Wilson on a joyful cover of ‘Handful of Dust’ – made popular by Don Williams. The respect between the two artists both to each other and to the heritage of country music comes through in this poised cover of the track, featuring a blistering guitar solo that infuses the track with life.
Undeniably, the standout track from the record comes at the halfway point with ‘How I Learned to Pray’ with Luke Combs – a revamped version of a solo cut taken from Worsham’s debut album Rubberband. The addition of Combs adds a degree of gravitas with his signature raw vocal. It was a stunning track in 2013 – exploring the idea of finding faith outside the confines of the church building (‘It wasn’t in a church with a chapter and a verse / Some preacher made sure everybody heard / Or just some words somebody taught me to say‘) – but is given a magical touch in the 2023 retelling. Even in the audio of the track, there’s a faultless chemistry between both singer’s vocals that gives the track a degree of charm and sentimentality. It’s pure magic.
The energy is kicked up a notch with the final two album tracks – ‘Kiss Like You Dance’ with Kip Moore and ‘Things I Can’t Control’ with Dierks Bentley. The former a charming, honky tonk riddled belter of a track singing to a lover – ‘I bet you kiss like you dance / I bet you get out of hand / In the middle of a crowd downtown / Don’t care if no one’s watchin” – and the latter an electric track about attempting to shake off other people’s expectations and absorbing yourself in the music – ‘I’m learning not to worry about the things I can’t control.’
What is clear from the project is Worsham’s innate knowledge and position in the Nashville community – these were not random selections of friends to join him on tracks. These were thoughtful and considered collaborations with not only some of the best talent Nashville has to offer, but moreover, with vocalists who marry seamlessly with his vocals. These tracks that not only show the depth of Worsham’s lyrical talent but the depth of the heritage of country music itself. Above all, it’s a joyful celebration of friendship and the Nashville tradition of community and co-writing.
