Corey Kent has Willie Nelson to thank for changing the course of his life.
At the age of 16, Kent from Oklahoma had already spent years playing music, including five years as a member of a Western Swing band, but by his mid-teens he was considering quitting music. When Nelson played a show in Tulsa, Kent got a ticket and quickly hatched a plan to play with the legendary country entertainer.
“I took a piece of cardboard from the trash, found a Sharpie from a lady at the concession stand and wrote, 'It's my dream to play a song with you,'” Kent recalled. Bulletin board. Kent continued to hold up the sign until Nelson called him on stage — and at Kent's request, they sang Bob Wills' “Milk Cow Blues.”
“From that point on, I knew I would never stop until I got to where I wanted to go—but this [had been] the closest I've ever come to throwing in the towel,” he says. “But Willie was there for me and he probably didn't even realize how much that moment meant to me.”
It was what Kent calls “another one of those black bandana moments.” This symbolism is woven throughout his second major label album Black bandanaout Friday (September 6) via Sony Music Nashville. The bandana – which serves as inspiration for the album's title, title track and cover art – has long been a favorite garment of cowboys, outlaws and gang members. But for Kent, his own black bandana was a handy deterrent from rocks or dust while riding his motorcycle. Kent rode his motorcycle to meet with his managers at Triple 8 Management for the first time and entered with a black bandana around his neck.
“We had the formalities and they were saying, 'You should think about keeping it. This may need to be part of your image on stage as well, to help you stand out in a sea of male country artists trying to break through,” she explains.
A songwriter at heart, Kent also recognized the image's deeper meaning. With Rocky Block co-writers Jordan Dozzi and Brett Tyler, Kent infused the song with the inherent rebellious spirit symbolized by a black bandana.
“What is the opposite of a black bandana? A white flag,” says Kent. “Then it made all this sense to stay the course and keep going, even when everyone else gives up. That's because when you want to wave a white flag, it encourages you to raise a black bandana.”
Kent notes that the album was originally going to be called Bixbyin a nod to his hometown of Oklahoma. After realizing that “Black Bandana” served as a fulcrum and centerpiece for the project, other songs on the album, such as “Rust,” “Ain't Gonna Lie” and “This Heart,” were written around themes of toughness, perseverance, love, faith and gritty triumph — music for those whose lives have been seasoned by hard times.
These are issues Kent knows well, having moved to Nashville to pursue music, only to land and then lose a publishing deal. He left Nashville for Texas shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. As the gigs stopped, his family of five had to sell their house to continue paying the band members. Undeterred, Kent also worked for a paving company, his family living on an income he says hovered just above the poverty line for a while.
“It was a crazy hard time,” he recalls. “There were a lot of moments, a lot of exit ramps where it would have been a lot easier to give up than to keep going.”
His discovery took place in 2022, with the song “Wild as Her”. He was quickly signed by Sony Music Nashville. “Wild as Her” reached No. 3 Bulletin boardon the Country Airplay chart and has since been certified platinum by the RIAA. He released his major label debut Blacktop last year. But on his latest, he says he's realized a wider, deeper range of influence: “It's the first record I've made that was more motivated [behind] from just writing about my life.”
Each song, he says, evokes a more heartfelt, deeper-rooted, more fiery kind of love, forged by years of enduring hardships and triumphs. For example, “Never Ready” describes milestone moments—finding love, raising children, dealing with the death of a parent—that many people face whether they feel prepared or not. “I got sick of hearing all these love songs where it was just like the honeymoon phase,” she explains. “What about people like me, who are seven or eight years old and going through tough times, but they still manage and love their wife? Where is this song? It's not all glamorous.”
He also eschewed typical Music Row writing rooms, instead bringing a host of songwriters—including Joybeth Taylor, Austin Goodloe, Rocky Block, Brett Tyler, and Lydia Vaughan—to his Texas residence for writing sessions. Kent co-wrote six of the album's songs, including “Rust” and “So Far”, but he intended to record only the standout songs, regardless of whether or not he co-wrote them – a defiant goal ossified through the early days of Kent's career trying to become a songwriter.
“I had a lot of holds, but I never made big cuts because I wasn't in the rooms with the writers writing with the artists,” he recalls. “I remember being like, 'This sucks for someone like me who gave everything to be here in Nashville and write songs. Now I don't like it, even though I wrote a great song, just because I didn't write it with the guy who's making the record.” This frustrated me to my core.”
One of the few outside tracks was “Now or Never,” a powerhouse '80s ballad he performs with “Road Less Traveled” hitmaker Lauren Alaina, as they sing about a couple on the precipice of a relationship-altering decision .
“I had to upload the song myself – it was already recorded – but the more I listened to it, the more I realized it could be a powerful duet,” he says.
Kent was playing a radio event in Billy Bob's Texas when he first met Alaina. “I was amazed to hear the power in her voice – the tone, the control, it checked all the boxes,” he laughs. When Kent brought up the idea of having Alaina sing on the track, she agreed.
“He's a total professional,” says Kent. “She was just as good in the studio as she was live, and she gave this song a really nice dynamic that it didn't have before.”
Kent's relentless underdog spirit has resonated with his fans, including in the video he posted on social media en route to this year's ACM Awards in May.
“I was driving my old 1996 Bronco. I was just thinking and I said something like, 'On the way to the ACMs with zero nominations, one bad record on the way…' and I dedicated it to whoever keeps working,” he recalls. “They have their heads down. They train everyone. I realized how many people identify with that, and they're usually the very gentle people, the ones who aren't necessarily going to jump up and down and say, “Look what I'm doing.” People resonated with it and a few weeks later, we wrote 'Black Bandana'.”
In late September, WME signee Kent will take the album on the road for his groundbreaking Black Bandana tour, visiting 25 cities in the US and UK, including Atlanta, Boston, Dublin and London. Joining him on select dates will be debutantes Braxton Keith, Kaitlin Butts, Max McNown, Karley Scott Collins and Lauren Watkins.
Along with the music, Kent recently released his own Bus call podcast, which features Kent in conversation with a mix of music industry and non-industry friends he's met along the way, including songwriter Kevin Fowler and Mac Terrence Sr., who works to bring positive influences to youth who are at risk.
“I just wanted to let people know about some really cool people in my life that I've met along the way,” she explains. “A lot of these people, I've met on the street, that's why we call it 'Bus Call,' because we bring them on the bus in whatever town we're stopping at. Most of the time, it's just me catching up with friends and having the same conversation which we would regularly do, except we have a microphone in front of us.”
Black bandana It may be Kent's second major project, but as he prepares for its release, he's once again drawing inspiration from Nelson, aiming to play the big game.
“I put in the work, I've been doing this for a long time, and I plan to be here 20 years from now,” Kent says. “When you look at Willie Nelson, [whose] ready to erase his own [76th solo studio album]the second doesn't seem to be all so do or die. You owe it to yourself to take the pressure off and create something you're passionate about. Let the chips fall where they may, then move on to the next one. That helped me take the pressure off the new album and realize that I'm looking at it from a 20-year perspective, not just from next year's perspective.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/corey-kent-black-bandana-album-willie-nelson-1235767903/