Blake Shelton’s 11th full-length studio album Texoma Shore has finally arrived.
The 11-track Texoma Shore, which follows 2016's If I'm Honest, is described by Shelton as "an album that could've been made years ago.”
He explained: “I'm not saying it's a vintage throwback sounding album, but it definitely sounds like a '90s sounding album. And I love that about this thing because that's one of my favourite decades in country music, and I miss it. So, I'm just proud that we were able to capture that sound with this record.”
Texoma Shore was created on Lake Texoma in Oklahoma, Shelton's home.
“I feel like these songs are kind of taking me back to, maybe even 10 years ago [and] where my sound was then. I wanted to make a record that gets me back to that place, musically,” said Shelton.
“Just the fact that I was able to do this record at home, it just doesn't feel like anything I've ever done before. I had chance to work with Scott Hendricks again and wrote a little bit. I wrote a song with Jessi Alexander and Josh Osborne. It's just a very, very special album for me. [It's] very personal, but not in a heavy, dark way. This is all about fun and lightheartedness, and I really wanted to make a record that sounds like something you'd listen to floatin' around on whatever your lake is at home."
One of the most special moments of making Texoma Shore came from the album's lead single "I'll Name The Dogs." Shelton was still in the middle of releasing music from his previous album If I'm Honest, but "I'll Name The Dogs" is what kickstarted him to begin his work on Texoma Shore.
“It's got fiddles, it's got steel, it sounds like a record that could've came out of the late '90s. I just feel like it was time for a song like this to be out there,” he explained. “Every time I hear that song, I decided, 'You know what? It's time to come to this new album.' And, we really got in the studio and started working on it at that point.”
In addition to "I'll Name The Dogs" there are songs like the nostalgic, retrospective "I Lived It," and a song called "At The House." Shelton previously said of the song: "Literally, this song is called 'At The House,' and this is what I do when I'm home. This is literally my life when I'm home.”
And speaking of personal songs, there is "Turnin' Me On," which is inspired by Shelton's girlfriend Gwen Stefani. “I was literally thinking of my girlfriend when I wrote this thing. I don't write that many very personal songs, but this one, I think, hits the mark,” he recalled.
Original article by Nicole Mastrogiannis at iHeartRadio