Look out world, Ed Sheeran is plotting a country music career
Ed Sheeran, ahead of his performance at the American Country Music Awards, says he talks to his wife about going country "all the time"
Aux News Ed Sheeran
Fresh off a legal victory regarding his song “Thinking Out Loud,” Ed Sheeran is looking for new ground to conquer. Sheeran has been a powerhouse force in pop music both on stage and behind the scenes (penning tunes for the likes of One Direction, Camilla Cabello, and Little Mix). Now, he’s pondering a new niche—country music.
This comes after an announcement that he’d be performing at the American Country Music Awards on Thursday. “I would love to transition into country,” he reveals in a new interview with Billboard, saying he talks to his wife about the idea “all the time.” “I love the culture of it, I just love the songwriting. It’s just like brilliant songs.”
The transition from pop to country probably isn’t too much of a stretch for Sheeran, whose guitar-based singer-songwriter origin would lend itself quite well to the genre. Plus, he has a role model in his good pal and frequent collaborator Taylor Swift, who made the opposite transition (country to pop) between 2012 and 2014.
“I’d never really listened to country music as a kid growing up. It was only being on Taylor’s Red tour and living in Nashville and her basically introducing me to that side of it,” Sheeran tells the outlet. He lauds the community in Nashville, Tennessee as “a hub of incredible songwriters, incredible performers,” saying he “felt inspired just being there being around everyone” when he was based in the city in 2013 and 2018.
Sheeran is reportedly playing “Life Goes On” (from his new album “-” i.e. Subtract) as well as another tune with a country artist who invited him to duet. That artist is as yet a mystery, but Luke Combs and Keith Urban are among the list of performers, so they’re both possible candidates. Sheeran co-wrote the Urban track “Parallel Lines,” and he’s shared the stage with Luke Combs. And although the U.K. doesn’t have as large a culture for country music, Sheeran thinks Combs “could probably play a stadium in England. I think if he put on Wembley [Stadium] next summer, he could sell it.” Perhaps Sheeran himself will be the one to bridge the divide (no Sheeran album title pun intended) for Britain’s country music fans.
39 Comments
But I already hate his music though!
On the bright side, he can’t possibly make modern pop country music any worse.
Wait until he covers “Cotton-Eye Joe”
I just hope he means British country, and introduces Nashville to Authentic English Country line dancing.
They say initial previews of his Hey Go-Lean and I Knock The Wine are real toe-tappers 😉
This could do for country music what his Galway Girl did for Irish folk music. Be afraid.
“Galway Girl” was written by American country music star Steve Earle, best known for his hit song and album “Copperhead Road”. So Sheeran has already ripped off country music. And apparently country singers can do Irish folk music that’s indistinguishable from the real thing. It probably helps that a lot of the instruments are common to both genres.
when you look at it, the scotch-irish were one of the dominant cultures in the south, country is back-channel irish immigrant music.
Actually, if it’s Irish, it’s whiskey. Scotch is only from Scotland, where Scottish people live.
Turns out Sheeran’s version uses the melody but not the lyrics as it’s a pop song with traditional accents in the chorus. So less of a connection than I thought.
Its a completely song from the Steve Earle one ( although I prefer the Mundy cover of that), just has the same title. And the SE one is more Irish Country ( which is …sadly a real thing , Google Daniel O’Donnell), than proper Irish folk.
Yeah, I listened to it and realized that. Well, listened until the chorus. I think that part may interpolate Earle’s version. I could swear I read it was a cover but it’s just as likely I misremembered.I may try listening to Irish Country. If it developed from traditional music incorporating features of American pop that could be interesting. If they attempt to take American Country songs and just replace the twang and drawl with a brogue that could be really bad. I’m guessing the latter from your comment.
you know, i actually had a sillier idea years ago, if you listen to some traditional chinese music, a lot of those instruments, like the guzheng sound like ones that are used in older country. and given the range of Chinese immigration in the us, you would likely find communities that grew up in the south liking the music, but with family traditions with their instruments, i was thinking it would be funny to kind of have a Chinese american version of the “waggaki band” except they would be using traditional Chinese instruments to make country.
Not the same song.
I’m not sure if I misread something or what but yeah, I listened and was not a fan. It might sample Earle’s song in the chorus but that’s as far as I got.
He’ll get an emo haircut and change his name to Ed Gaines.
No no, this is the Reverse Gaines, so he’ll have to grow a mullet and a goatee.
I’m not sure the world’s ready for Ed Sheeran with bangs.It looks like he’s got a Trump combover/wave thing going on there
He can always cover it with a cowboy hat. Do country singers still do that?
Did Garth have a mullet? I thought he was bald.
He mostly kept his hair short, but he did have a mullet for a while when he still had a little bit of coverage up top.
Ahhh, the underappreciated skullet, then!King of the skullet:
Ed Sheeran is the Rick Astley of the Morgan Wallens.
Ed Sheeran Discovers New Music Genre to Steal From
Sheeran’s a pretty sharp artist with a nose for where pop music is going (hence all the mega-hits). I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s looking at going into country because country is going into a period of greater prominence in pop music.
He’ll do great. Nothing appeals to county music fans like an English ginger with a bad haircut and sorry excuse for a beard.
“I love the culture of it, I just love the songwriting. It’s just like brilliant songs.”He hasn’t listened to any country music recorded since the ’70s, has he?
I mean after hearing some of the flag wankery, jingoistic, dumb as rocks examples of modern country, he might be better off.
America is just one big commercial full of cliches. Anyone can be “country”.
Just include the words: beer, Fawrd™truck (for that sweet sponsorship), boots, broke, heart, lawrd, pray, she, forty-five and cheatin’.
“I told him it was not the perfect country & western song
Because he hadn’t said anything at all about mama
Or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting’ drunk” -David Allan Coe
It’s missing a bass boat and river/“swimmin’ hole”
Hopefully this will turn all of those Country fanatics to change their music preferences. The only complain I get about Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road is that he accidentally introduce younger generation to Country music.
It’ll be like that Proclaimers song where they say “Tupelo, Mississippi”.Also, his first country album should be called Ginger Beer.
Red (hair), White (T-shirt), and Blue (Eyes)Perform it in front of a giant Union Jack
I don’t like Ed Sheeran’s music, but honestly… I respect the hell out of him, especially after the Thinking Out Loud case. Saw a clip of the Stern interview from where the header image comes from. Dude took the case to court and fought it for 8 years, had to miss his grandma’s funeral, he took a stand against the Gaye Estate and their disgusting brand of litigiousness, and he demonstrated the fallacy of their way of thinking by being a good musician. I don’t know if this can set a precedent to forestall such cases in the future, but either way I’m happy he stuck it to the Gaye Estate. He’s alright.
He still hasn’t credited Bronski Beat for the Small Town boy sample in Bad Habits though, so he can feck off!
Not the Gaye estate in this case, it was Gaye’s co-writer on “Let’s Get it On.”
He promised us Death Metal. I hate you now, Ed.
Too bad he won his case and didn’t quit music altogether.