Flow State
"People would be surprised how many country artists are obsessed with yacht rock," says Lady A singer Charles Kelley, host of a new yacht-rock show on SiriusXM
Buy me a boat? That’s so 2015. This year, country music — or at least a few of its leading men — is moving up from fishing rigs and pontoons to the easy listening waters of yacht rock.
On Friday, Keith Urban released his 13th album, Flow State, a collection comprising mostly covers of classic songs like “Steal Away,” “Summer Breeze,” and “Just the Two of Us,” featuring Little Big Town, John Mayer, and lord of the smooth himself, Michael McDonald. It was also co-produced by Dann Huff, who played on some of the seminal yacht-rock records as a session musician in the Eighties. Urban has said that he started the project as an accidental antidote to the stress of our world, and sure, we get that: Who hasn’t calmed their post-breakup heart in heavily divisive times with a little Doobie Brothers? Well, at least Urban has.
He’s not the only one in Nashville currently enamored with yacht rock. Songs like Morgan Wallen’s “7 Summers” have brought those relaxed West Coast vamps all the way to country radio. And last month, Lady A’s Charles Kelley launched Y’all Aboard on SiriusXM’s Yacht Rock Radio, where he spins his favorite soft tunes alongside guests like Russell Dickerson, Dustin Lynch, Trisha Yearwood, and more. The goal, he said in an Instagram post, is to show that country music has “a lot more than you think” in common with the genre most often associated with poolside easy listening, R&B tones, and jazzy riffs.
