Musician Maren Morris has officially departed from country music with the release of her new extended play, “The Bridge.” The two-pack of songs sees Morris transition from Columbia Nashville to Columbia Records, formally cementing her farewell to the genre.
An explanation for her departure can be traced back to lines on new songs from “The Bridge.”
EP-opener “The Tree” sees Morris discuss no longer wasting her time on a burning tree that is set to fall. She compares the burning tree to the world of country music, where she has found her efforts to save it to be useless.
“This song evokes the pain of exhausting all your love and time for this person or ‘entity’ but realizing it’s just a draining, transactional relationship that isn’t nourishing in any healthy way,” Morris said on her Instagram (@marenmorris). “By the end of the song, I give myself permission to face the sun, plant new seeds where it’s safer to grow and realize that sometimes there IS greener grass elsewhere.”
Following the burning of “The Tree” is the second, and final, song on Morris’ goodbye EP — “Get The Hell Out Of Here.” On the follow-up track, Morris offers a moment of grace to herself for always looking to do what she felt she needed to do, as opposed to doing what was right, in her mind. “Watered the garden but forgot to fill the well / I fed all my good intentions while I starved myself / So to starting conversations that only end in tears / Go on, get the hell out of here.”
Though “The Bridge” is supposed to signify Morris’ transition from genres, some country music fans have claimed Morris has not been “country” for years now despite labeling her music as such. Katie LeBlanc, allied health studies major and sophomore at the University of Mississippi, holds this belief.
“She is a great artist, but I don’t think I’d consider her country,” LeBlanc said. “There may have been some country aspects, but she’s never been completely country.”
Genre-bending is prevalent in today’s brand of country music. It is a vital conversation that many country music fans deem necessary when celebrating or promoting their favorite artists. Sophomore accounting student and Salida, Colo., native Annie Hill believes that genre-defining is important, but she also subscribes to the opinion that specific genre does not define the quality of an artist’s work.
“I would say that it does matter what genre she (Morris) labels herself, because it may affect the type of music she produces in the future,” Hill said. “I think that she sings a huge array of genres. Over time, her most popular songs have generally shifted from heartbroken country to upbeat pop to soft rock, and this is actually something I really like about her. She has such versatile music that I can just turn on a Maren Morris playlist and get the best of all worlds.”
The exhaustion Morris is feeling in the burning tree of country music is likely fueled by controversy with fellow country star Jason Aldean and his family–namely his wife, Brittany Aldean. In August 2022, the latter posted a statement on her social media that some, including Morris, found to be anti-trans.
“I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I was going through my tomboy phase. I love the girly life,” Brittany Aldean (@brittanyaldean) said.
Morris did not let the remark slide and clapped back on Twitter.
“It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie,” Morris (@MarenMorris) said.
Jason Aldean scored his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs Chart with the contentious “Try That In A Small Town” earlier in 2023. Critics pointed out that some of the song lyrics and scenes in the music video to the track felt infused with allusions to sundown towns and lynching.
Interestingly, the video for Morris’ “The Tree” features a sign reading, “Welcome to Our Perfect Small Town.” Just below the greeting, “sunrise to sundown” haunts the shadows in what some have perceived as a shade toward the Jason Aldean song.
Morris’ feud with the Aldeans is just a drop in the barrel of instances of her frustrations with country music. It will be fascinating for her fanbase, “The Lunatics,” to see where she ends up on the other side of “The Bridge.”
