Tiera Kennedy has re-released her debut album after the label dropped her

Tiera Kennedy is having one of the biggest years of her career, but last winter things didn’t look so promising.

The 26-year-old country star had been dropped from her record label after working on her debut album for more than two years (and eight years in Nashville). It was one of the lowest moments of her professional life, but she soon received a boost from none other than an authority Beyoncewho enlisted Kennedy for guest vocals on her “Blackbiird” and “Tyrant”. Cowboy Carter album.

“When that happened, I thought, ‘Wow, God. You really have a plan for everything,” Kennedy said exclusively We weekly. “Being asked to be on the Cowboy Carter album really felt like a wink from God, like, ‘You’ve got this, you can do this on your own.’

It seems like it single-handedly worked in Kennedy’s favor, as her debut album, Rootedis finally coming true – and this time it feels good, she says.

“I definitely feel like since leaving my label, I just feel more confident in who I actually am as an artist and what that sound is,” Kennedy shared. Us for Rooted‘s Friday, October 18, release. “And so when I left my label, we decided to dig back into the R&B country sound that I was doing before I signed, and we went back into the archives and found some songs that we had written years ago that we felt really comfortable with felt. the atmosphere. I’m kidding when I say it felt like it took a long time, but it really did. It took a few years for this album to come together.”

After going back to the drawing board, only a few songs from the original version remain Rooted – including ‘Better Than Me’, ‘I Ain’t a Cowgirl’ and ‘I’d Look Good in That Truck’ – ended up on the LP that fans will hear soon.

Although Kennedy admitted that losing her recording contract was “bittersweet,” she is much happier with the way the album sounds now. The new version better suits her style, which she calls R&B country – and should be known to everyone who has ever Cowboy Carter has been on repeat since March.

“It feels like a very cohesive sound of who I really am, which is a little bit country and a little bit R&B. So you have all these notes on the album,” Kennedy explained, noting that she did not leave her label by choice. “I didn’t feel like I could release music that really spoke to me. Sometimes it was hard to even put out music, period. So when I got the news that they were dropping me, there was sadness, of course, but there was also excitement about what could be.

Kennedy lights up when he talks about it Rootedwhich feels intensely personal to her. For example, on ‘Can’t Help My Country’ she sings about loving classic artists like Charley proud And Dolly Parton – and also Deana Carter‘Strawberry Wine ‘, a touchstone for any country fan who came of age when The Chicks and Shania Twain brought a new form of feminism to the genre.

“Charley Pride, that was the first record my grandmother ever gave me,” Kennedy said of the groundbreaking artist who died in 2020 at the age of 86. “At the time, I didn’t really know the history of country music. My family is so great that when I started doing country music, they never said to me, “You can’t do this because there aren’t many people who look like you.” They showed me the examples of the people who were here in the country, which really encouraged me to look at people like Charley Pride who have made so many achievements in this genre.

Kennedy also references more contemporary country trends Rootedlike on the cheeky track “I’d Look Good in That Truck.” Truck songs are a staple of country music, to the point that the less creative songs sound like parodies, but Kennedy’s take isn’t really about the vehicle — it’s about falling in love with the (kidnapped) man driving it.

“If you weren’t with her / Maybe we’d be by the river / Layed in bed with a blanket,” she sings in the second verse. “Maybe it’s wrong / And my chance is long gone / But I can’t get it out of my head.”

Another song is literally called ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, although it has nothing to do with the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic of the same name. Kennedy’s version, co-written with Jared Scottis about her relationship with her husband of three years, Kamren.

“We loved knowing that people would look at this song and say, question mark? What is that? Kennedy said Us. “We just wanted to completely screw it up and make sure it wasn’t what people expected.”

Defying expectations is an idea that has passed away Rooted and one that has become more personal for Kennedy in the past year.

“For a long time when I was deciding which songs to release, I had that in the back of my mind like, ‘Okay, there has to be a certain amount of country so that no one comes after me and says I’m not.’ basically a country artist,'” she explained. “But then we renewed RootedI just thought, ‘You know what? I don’t care if people think this isn’t country enough.’ These songs mean something and they say something, and I think that’s all that matters in the end. It doesn’t really matter to me whether I fit into a certain box. I think it’s important to reach people and make sure people feel seen and that people feel something through my music. And so whatever genre it belongs in, whatever genre people think it belongs in, okay – as long as people listen and feel heard, that’s all I care about.”

Tiera Kennedys Rooted will be released on Friday, October 18.