Wise philosopher Amy Grant has previously noted that vacations amplify life changes more than any other window of time.
Most families have seasonal rituals—they put out the same decorations, cook the same foods, and sing the same songs—so the arrival of a new baby, a death, a wedding, or a divorce is likely to become more extreme during this window, and to remind people of the uncertainties of life.
With that backdrop, Justin Moore's new off-season single, “Time's Ticking,” arrived at the perfect time, hitting country radio via PlayMPE on October 25th.
“It's very simple,” Moore says of the song's message. “Live life to the fullest and try to make the most of every moment you have, whether it's with your family or your career. Make the most of every day.”
This message has quite a history in country music. Cody Johnson's “Til You Can't,” Kenny Chesney's “Don't Blink,” Ty Herndon's “Living in a Moment,” and, of course, Tim McGraw's “Live Like You Were Dying” are a few just from the titles encouraging the listener to experience the present as it passes.
“When you're in the day-to-day,” says Moore, “you can lose sight of that sometimes. It's good to have the opportunity to be reminded of that.”
Co-writer/producer Jeremy Stover (“Til My Last Day,” “You're Like Coming Home”) appears, according to two of his co-writers, to have brought the title when “Time's Ticking” was written in Florida of. Panhandle property on February 24, 2023.
“My kids are getting a little older,” Stover says, “and I'm just thinking about some of the moments that I missed, but also some of the ones that I was there for — you know, the ones that I was there because they were really precious and I really appreciate them. That's a big part of where he's coming from.”
Moore spent about a week writing his This Is My Dirt album, and the day before arriving in Florida, Stover cooked up some ideas with Randy Montana (“Beer Never Broke My Heart,” “Pretty Heart”) and Will Bundy (“Friends Like That,” “Half of Me”). Moore had willingly dealt with mortality on previous hits “If Heaven't Wasn't So Far Away” and “The Ones That Didn't Make It Back Home,” so when Stover suggested “Time's Ticking,” no one batted an eye. the eye on the subject.
“No one has a better pulse on Justin Moore than Jeremy Stover,” notes Bundy. “They've worked together since day one, so she knows exactly the details of what Justin will love.”
Bundy set to work with a fast tempo, putting an energetic spin on a potentially difficult subject, and they developed the lyrical framework of the chorus, opening with “Call your mama, kiss your babies” and closing with the title track. They mapped out the melody a bit, too, and instead of giving the chorus a standard lift, they generally kept it in the same range as the verses.
“Sometimes we call them anti-chorus,” notes Montana. “So many of these choruses, you go up a third or a fifth in your scale. Some people even go up an octave, depending on the singer, but man, there's something so smooth about a song that just stays at that point.”
Predictably, Moore happily rolled up his sleeves the next day. They decided that a funeral procession would reasonably drive the protagonist's mind toward its own finality, and dropped a “long, black Cadillac” right into the first two lines. They debated whether a hearse was the right image to start a song with, but the debate didn't last long.
“When you're writing a song, if you can make a mark early, I think it's better,” Moore explains, “so people kind of immediately understand where you're going.”
It didn't hurt that Bundy punctuated the intro with an instrumental signature as he built the track, offsetting the potential for “Time's Ticking” to take a morbid turn.
“I always like to find that lick early,” Bundy says. “This is the first melody you hear for a song and we know how short people's attention spans are these days. If that doesn't catch your ear pretty quickly, you're kind of cooked before you start.”
They created “Time's Ticking” with amazing simplicity. In the first verse, the guy honors the motorcade by pulling into a Kwik Sak parking lot. On the chorus, he has a sharp attitude adjustment, reminding himself to appreciate every second he's given. In the second verse, he drives back to the road with his new perspective.
That's all the action that happens in a full three and a half minutes.
“The song is really bigger than what's happening in the song in real time,” Montana observes. “I think it's really cool.”
His co-writers also credit Stover with a quirky standout line: “Spinner bait a good honey hole.” It may sound a bit suggestive to some listeners who don't know the lingo of anglers – a 'honey hole' is a secret fishing hot spot. And “spinner bait” is a noun deliberately used as a verb. The phrase begs the listener to lean in a bit and get the specifics.
“It sounds like a hair to the left, but I like that,” says Montana. “That's the part that sticks with me after I hear it.”
Once Bundy made the demo, Moore nailed down the final vocals for “Time's Ticking” in the kitchen and joined Stover and co-producer Scott Borchetta later for a tracking session at The Castle in Franklin, Tenn.'s road band. Moore handled the parts with Danny Rader augmenting on acoustic guitar and banjo. Bundy's sig lick was re-recorded with two guitars delivering the riff, and Tucker Wilson's drum part was heavily filtered into the first verse.
“It added this kind of lo-fi, boxy sound,” says Stover.
Steel guitarist Mike Johnson brought spiritual movement to the cut during an overdub session at Blackbird Studio, perpetuating the players' overall musical mission.
“It's more of a happy feeling,” says Stover. “It's a positive song. It's not a punch in the face to say, “Hey, wake up, time is unpredictable.” It's more like a peck on the shoulder.”
Dierks Bentley made a guest appearance on the album version, although conflicts in his own release schedule precluded any possibility of his participation on a single. So Valory served radio with a mix based on all of Moore's original solo vocals.
The remarkable message of “Time's Ticking” ends up being as true for Moore's career as it is for the lives of his fans.
“You never know when the last one is [single] what you'll have is the last you'll have,” he says.
“So I try to make music that will stand the test of time and I think this song has that chance.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/justin-moore-times-ticking-makin-tracks-1235843072/
