Along with his ever-polite Alabama manners, nation star Riley Inexperienced isn’t one to brag.
Fortunate for him, we don’t thoughts doing it for him.
Already boasting a multi-Platinum catalog constructed on no-B.S. tunes and an trustworthy connection to the life they’re about, Inexperienced’s scorching streak retains getting hotter. After dropping his third Nashville album Don’t Thoughts If I Do final month, he’s up for his first-ever CMA Award at this yr’s November 20 present, the place he’ll vie for Musical Occasion of the Yr for his duet “You Look Like You Love Me” with Ella Langley.
However as if that wasn’t sufficient, the rising star can also be celebrating open season along with his bar, Riley Inexperienced’s Duck Blind, which just lately took over the prime midtown location that housed Winners for years. Open now as the brand new neighbor and praise to the much-loved Losers Bar & Grill (the bars share possession ties), it’s a full circle second. Inexperienced says he made his early Music Metropolis connections in Winners, going again to his first Whiskey Jam as an indie up-and- comer intent on doing issues his method.
“It’s been nice. I can’t say that I actually wanted one other challenge like a bar, nevertheless it’s an superior factor to associate with anyone I’m good pals with,” Inexperienced says, talking of longtime Losers co-owner Steve Ford, who additionally owned Winners. “And possibly extra significant that it’s a bar I spent a whole lot of time at. Loads of the relationships I’ve made on the town have been proper there in that constructing, so it’s cool to have my identify on it.”
Rebuilt from the bottom up, guests of Riley Inexperienced’s Duck Blind will discover Nashville’s well-known upscale honky-tonk expertise, however with an idea personalized to Inexperienced’s private style. Well-known for nonetheless dwelling in his hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama, he’s an avid and vocal outdoorsman, so you may consider the Duck Blind as a burger joint and sports activities bar with a robust looking and fishing theme – and in addition a stage the place aspiring artists can hone their craft.
That final half was particularly necessary to Inexperienced, who says he actually by no means anticipated to be concerned in a bar, however figured if it was going to occur, he’d higher do it proper.
“It’s a spot that up-and-coming guys and women can go and inform their story and sing songs that they wrote, and inform the tales behind them. That’s one thing I’ve at all times loved about Nashville,” he explains. “I wished it to be one thing that was a superb extension of me, and I’ve positively been an enormous outdoorsman my entire life. I really like duck looking, and it has form of grow to be a part of my model, so I believed that was an ideal tie-in. And it was one thing I haven’t seen up right here.”
In the meantime, Inexperienced’s nonetheless exhausting at work telling his personal story, and Don’t Thoughts If I Do fills in just a few extra blanks. That includes 18 songs true to the life his bar captures in spirit, acquainted themes like riverbank romance and burned bridges make the set one other instance of Inexperienced’s real love of all issues nation. 5 tracks have been even written solo, bringing followers even nearer to his headspace. And on high of chest-thumping anthems of backwoods philosophy, ingesting tunes with a taste all their very own, and soulful tributes to these tied to their land, Inexperienced as soon as once more opens a window to his coronary heart.
Produced by hit maker Dann Huff and constructed on an earthy fashionable twang, the set follows just a few years of success which have seen Inexperienced cement his model of rough-hewn-but-tender nation with hits just like the 3x Platinum “I Want Grandpas By no means Died.” Extra just lately, he earned his first CMA Awards nod with Ella Langley on the two-stepping “You Look Like You Love Me,” and as one of many extra “country-sounding” songs on this yr’s poll, Inexperienced says it’s motivating to know that fashion can nonetheless flip heads. It’s “proper the place I need to be,” he says, and he wasn’t trying to change for Don’t Thoughts If I Do.
“I feel the alternative,” he says. “I’m eager to strive not altering up my sound or writing from wherever completely different. I feel I ought to lean into what obtained me right here, and it’s telling tales about how I grew up and a number of the values we’ve got there. As I get slightly older, I suppose a few of my experiences have modified, however I actually need to attempt to write from the identical place.”
As a living proof, the title observe is one other duet with Langley. After the pair toured collectively and developed some artistic chemistry, the post-breakup longing behind “Don’t Thoughts If I Do” makes it a melancholy standout of romantic second-guessing.
The album options one other collaboration, too – this time with celebrity Luke Bryan – and this one wanted a lighter contact. Fellow outdoorsmen, Inexperienced says the pair have grow to be friends and generally spend days off fishing in Bryan’s bass pond simply exterior Nashville. So naturally, they channeled a day of snagged strains and ones-that-got-away into the slow-rolling enjoyable of “Reel Issues.”
“It simply wanted to be an actual enjoyable, mild tune,” Inexperienced says. “Clearly, speaking about ‘reel issues’ being these small issues you could have on the lake has form of put it in perspective what actually issues, and once I wrote the tune, I knew it might be one thing Luke would dig.” “I feel we’ll have a superb time filming a music video for that at some point,” he goes on. “Possibly in a ship someplace.”
There’s extra to life than romance and damaged rods, although, and Inexperienced consists of one other gut-wrenching gem on Don’t Thoughts If I Do. First launched in early 2024 on his Method Out Right here EP, the solo-written “Jesus Saves” stands as a vivid portrait of homelessness – and extra importantly, the humanity behind it. Framed round a easy cardboard signal (and the a lot deeper story it doesn’t inform), the transferring ballad is perhaps hypothetical, however the empathy it creates is all too actual.
“You don’t actually know what anyone’s been by means of,” Inexperienced says. “I hope individuals heard it in a method that will make ‘em slightly extra compassionate if you see anyone that might use a hand. A few of these issues – if we went by means of ‘em we is perhaps of their similar footwear. So, it’s a reasonably particular tune to me, and I believed it was a superb message.”
With Thanksgiving on the way in which, it’s additionally one other reminder of how far Inexperienced has come. He may not be one to brag, however as for paying it ahead? Nicely, that’s extra like, “don’t thoughts if I do.”
“I’m very blessed in a whole lot of methods with my music profession, and now having a bar and issues I by no means actually dreamed of,” he says. “If the bar generally is a place for anyone to come back and get their begin form of like I did, that’d be an ideal factor, and is actually motivating for me.”
