Riley Green is keeping traditions alive with his new EP If It Wasn’t For Trucks and we are here for it!
The 31-year-old singer/songwriter’s new five-track project celebrates his small-town upbringing and simplistic lifestyle, further cementing his place in the genre as the Southern chart-topper delves into the next chapter of his story. “I think that if there’s anything that I could try to be right now, I feel like it’s great to be a little different,” Riley tells Celeb Secrets Country over Zoom.
“I think the hardest thing for new artists is you have a No. 1 song; people hear it and they sing along to it. But I don’t think they know who sings it all the time. For me, it’s putting out a project that is new music, but still very much me and my style. Still a traditional sound and still telling my story for people who don’t know who I am yet because at the end of the day, it’s all about trying to get new fans and people to find me,” he adds. “Although a lot of people have probably heard ‘There Was This Girl’ and ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died,’ they probably don’t even know who I am, so if I could keep portraying that guy that still says sir and m’am and shakes hands, I think that’s kind of the message I’m trying to put out [with this EP].”
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Crediting artists like Jamie Johnson, Merle Haggard and George Jones, Riley says he was inspired by their simplicity and twang when making If It Wasn’t For Trucks EP, saying that each of the five songs make him feel a certain way when listening to them. Still trying to keep his material contemporary, Green says that he looks up to artists like Jon Pardi, who is keeping a traditional sound relevant and with the times.
“I always think that [Jon] does a really good job of putting traditional sound in a very contemporary style of music that’s still relevant today, so that’s something that I’m trying to do,” Riley shares, “is to keep my traditional sound alive through something that could be played on the radio today that these kids are gonna be like, ‘hey I like that.'”
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After spending 2019 on the road with Brad Paisley and Jon Pardi while also headlining his own GET THAT MAN A BEER TOUR, Green kicked off 2020 on Jason Aldean’s WE BACK TOUR. While touring is on pause, he is staying connected with his fans through his bi-weekly YouTube Golden Saw Series, presented by Busch, which can be found here: https://RileyGreen.lnk.
In terms of new music? Green says he has a ton of songs in the vault and hopes to release them sooner rather than later.
“I’m sure some of y’all have seen that I’m always bad in a way about playing songs that aren’t cut and just teasing stuff on Instagram… it’s because that’s how I always did it,” he says. “If I didn’t have a social media platform to do that, I probably wouldn’t have cut anything. I can’t go play shows so I write this song and to see if its any good, [I] play it and see what people think.”
Adding, “We’ve got a lot of music, and that’s one thing I think is another positive from what’s going on is that I’ve got time to get into the studio and not be in a rush to pick a single. We’re gonna play these songs and record them, and try and come up with the best version of me through song that we could come up with.”
For more on Riley Green’s music, watch our full interview below. You can connect with Riley by following him on Instagram at @rileyduckman.
Have you listened to Riley’s If It Wasn’t For Trucks EP yet? Let us know what you think of it by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @CS_Country.
Listen to Riley Green’s “If It Wasn’t For Trucks” EP below: