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I was so anxiety-ridden!
she says, understandably, of her decision to go on with the show.
Its a 360-degree arena, so that stage rotates, slowly, the entire time that youre performing.
Its enough to make you feel off-balance.
I feel like a badass that I got through that.
The evening was a celebration of Morriss meteoric success and the growing collection of No.
1 hits shed amassed.
The title track is the mission statement, and lays out exactly how comfortable shes grown with being uncomfortable.
Circles Around This Town, for example, directly references My Church, which you co-wrote with busbee.
Did you encounter other moments like these while writing the record?
Its so strange: I wrote Hummingbird the day that I found out I was pregnant.
But that obviously didnt happen.
Im not trying to prove anything.
I feel like a grown-ass woman on this record, but its also not trying too hard.
Not to get all This is your most personal album yet!
I dont think I had any worry when I was putting these songs down.
I just kept listening to the mixes over and over.
Even the more unflinching ones, they calmed me in moments of anxiety.
I think it was a therapy record.
Are you full of shit?
Its all honest, but I think its just peeling back layers of what that honesty looks like.
I just write the chapter of my life that Im in and I move on.
As much as these songs are eternalized in an album, I cant wallow in something for too long.
How has writing and performing with him evolved for you?
I wrote with Ryan a ton on this album.
But I didnt write Background Music with him, I wrote itforhim.
Were just totally open to all of it.
Whats my identity without that?
Id love to hear about Hayess cameo in Hummingbird.
How has it been to share your music with him?
Sheryl Crow was kind enough to let us finish the record at her barn studio here in Nashville.
Hes the only feature on the whole project.
Humble Questcarries an understandable weight, but we also have plenty of levity with Detour and Tall Guys.
And then we have Good Friends, a tribute to friendship.
Its funny you say the Highwomen because I wrote Good Friends and Tall Guys withNatalie Hemby.
We just have that closeness.
It makes me feel a lot less isolated in a very lonely at times business.
Now Im left with the quality few that nourish me and make me wiser and laugh.
Its just made me feel a lot less alone.
Youve been using your platform to advocate for racial and gender equality in country music.
Its definitely helped me articulate really tough but necessary conversations better than I could two years ago.
Its messy, but I think its messy because were having the conversations.
Im definitely willing to be uncomfortable.
Thats the only way you could grow, and that means youre growing, when theres some discomfort.
Shes gotten all of this on her own.
Its not from radio play for certain.
You just kind of have to keep banging on the door.
Youre talking about mortality in that line, but we hear this sentiment a lot.
How doesHumble Questreflect that idea of growth, and has it changed your definition of it?
Ive been having this moving target for so long, and equating success with accolades and what Ive achieved.
That all got wiped away.
Thats why we wrote that line in Humble Quest: I still havent found it yet.
Im doing my best, but I havent found it yet and maybe I never will.
This is just a snapshot of it for the yearbook.
But I think no ones got it figured out.
All of the things are so public-facing.
Its starting to break down the internalization of our egos.
Its just not my end all be all anymore.
Its what I choose to love and not what I have to do to feel loved.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
