Move over Chris Young and Cassadee Pope. There’s a new power duet coming soon—Jason Aldean and Kelsea Ballerini.
On Jason’ new album, They Don’t Know, which drops on Sept. 9, the Georgia native teams with Kelsea for a duet on “First Time Again.”
Jason stopped by the Nash Country Daily campus today (Aug. 22) to talk about the new song.
“I originally recorded ‘First Time Again’ with no intent of it being a duet. We were gonna cut it, and I was just gonna sing the song. We kind of listened to it and thought it could very well be a duet, and so then you just start listening around for artists. I had heard Kelsea sing, heard a couple songs she had put out, then heard ‘Peter Pan,’ and there was something different about her voice on it than the other songs she had put out. It gave me a chance to really hear her vocals. Obviously, she’s off to a great start in her career and doing really well, so she was on our radar. We sent her the song, and she liked it and wanted to be a part of it. Sometimes you just never know. You never know until you get in and hear people’s voices and how they’re gonna mix together. She came in and nailed her part and did great. Then also on the background vocals, the stuff she was singing with me sounded great. I thought she did amazing. It’s cool be able to pick those people and want to do something like that and have it all come together and sounds great and make the record. It doesn’t always happen, so it’s nice when it works out that way.”
They Don’t Know has already yielded a No. 1 tune, “Lights Come On,” and the album’s second single, “A Little More Summertime,” is quickly rising the charts. According to Jason, “First Time Again” has a good shot at becoming a future single, especially if fans get behind it on social media.
“I cut every song on the record with the intention of any of them possibly being a single. I hope the people can go back and listen to my records and feel like there aren’t any album fillers. I don’t cut albums that way. Every song on the record, I feel like if it was put out as a single would do well. I feel like I’ve done that with every album, and this one is no exception. So ‘First Time Again’ may very well be a single down the road. Who knows? We’ve got a ton of great stuff on the album, I feel like. Once the album comes out and you start to get people’s feedback and hear what the fans are saying on social media, you can kind of gauge who’s liking what and what’s working and you kind of go from there.”
Jason resumes his Six String Circus Tour with back-to-back shows at Boston’s Fenway Park on Sept. 9 and 10 with Kid Rock.
