Anne Wilson on Blending Country, CCM on new album 'Rebel': 'I'm not going to change who I am'

Earlier this month, CMA Awards Entertainer of the Year Lainey Wilson stood alongside contemporary Christian music star Chris Tomlin at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena as part of Tomlin's eighth annual Good Friday in Nashville concert.

Standing between them on stage was “My Jesus” creator Anne Wilson. The trio of artists playing to the Nashville crowd served as a literal representation of Wilson's new album, Rebel, aiming to fully intertwine the two genres through a country sound laced with faith-filled lyrics. Tomlin and Lainey also appear Rebel, out Friday (April 19) via Capitol Christian Music Group and Universal Music Group Nashville.

In 2021, Wilson from Kentucky broke out with 'My Jesus', a song she wrote after the death of her older brother Jacob. The song spent six weeks at the top of Billboard's Christian Airplay chart, making Wilson the first female soloist to top the Christian Airplay chart with a debut single since the chart's launch in 2003. Subsequent singles included top 5 Christian Airplay hits “Sunday Sermons” and the top 25 hit “Hey Girl.”

After releasing her debut album Capitol Christian Music Group, my jesuswhich sonically straddled the grooves between CCM and country, Wilson recalls receiving messages from both country and Christian music fans.

“Some would say, 'We don't listen to Christian music, but we like your music. It sounds country.” And then others would say, 'We love country music, but we don't play it in the car because we don't want our kids to hear it, but we let them hear you — in between,'” says Wilson. Advertising sign, while sitting in the office of UMG Nashville. “That was encouraging for me to hear and it showed me that's where we were going.”

As she began writing for the album in late 2022, Wilson says “the songs that came from my heart ran more country.” To that end, she has begun to expand her success on CCM radio by releasing music that appeals to both the public and CCM, with her current Top 5 Christian Airplay hit “Strong” as well as “Rain in the Rearview” . The songs complement Rebel they flirt between themes familiar to country listeners, such as family (“My Father's Daughter”), Sunday morning church, farm life and the struggles of life on the road (“Milestones”), but also songs that delve into spiritual themes of prayer (“Sinner's Prayer,” “Praying Woman”), redemption (“3:16”), and worship (“The Cross,” with Tomlin);

UMG Nashville President/CEO Cindy Mabe also saw the potential of a CCM-country connection and reached out to Wilson's team in 2023.

“He said, 'We want to give her a chance to get a song on country radio and expand her reach,'” Wilson recalled. “It was unusual, but it made sense. I basically have two labels, which is amazing. Double the people, double the ideas. It was great to have so many different people helping with this album.”

Wilson, Zach Kale, CCM singer-songwriter Matthew West and The Cadillac Three's Jaren Johnston wrote 'Rain in the Rearview' in August 2023 and released it the following month.

“Writing it, producing it and releasing it in about five weeks was very fast, but it's been great to see the reaction and how my music has been able to go on both country and Christian platforms and be appreciated on both” , says Wilson.

Certainly, songs of faith have been mainstays in country music since its inception, from the gospel classic “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” made famous in country circles by the Carter Family in 1935, to “I Saw the Light” by Hank Williams and Carrie Underwood's Grammy-winning 'Something in the Water'. But the past five years have seen a distinct uptick, with more than a dozen country-CCM collaborations released by artists including Dolly Parton, Zach Williams, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett and Colton Dixon. Tomlin collaborated with FGL on a CCM album featuring country artists, while Steven Curtis Chapman released a bluegrass project and Underwood released an album of anthems.

With Rebel, Wilson fully combines the two genres. She wrote every song on the 16-track project, reuniting with her core team of co-writers in West and Jeff Pardo, who co-wrote “My Jesus” with Wilson, and expanding her writing circle by bringing in top country writers including by Nicolle Galyon, Emily Weisband, Trannie Anderson and Casey Beathard.

“It was really life-giving as an artist. this album felt very free-spirited, like I could write about my faith, but also about different things,” says Wilson, who is in both the Opry's NextStage Class of 2024 and the CMT Next Women of Country Class of 2024 .

He teams up with “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” singer Lainey Wilson (no relation) on “Praying Woman.”

“I loved working with her,” says Anne. “I met Lainey on Instagram in 2020. Then we met [in person] last year, and we wrote the song on the same day… We were talking about our moms, and we both remember praying a lot when we were kids, kneeling down and praying for things, and we should write a song to honor our moms, and we're talking about what it means to be a woman who prays and believes.”

She says Lainey is “like a big sister,” explaining, “What I love about Lainey's story is that she worked so many years and lived in a boot camp and all that stuff and she never changed who she was. She believed that she would continue to be herself and something would happen one day, and it did. He has told me many times, “Don't change for anyone or anything.”

“Next Thing You Know” creator Jordan Davis joins “Country Gold,” a tender, breezy ode to the richness found in the simplicity of family, friends, and rural life. They first collaborated during the ACM Honors last year, performing Davis' hit “buy Dirt.”

“He's such a nice guy,” says Wilson. “When I wrote 'Country Gold' and felt like it could be a collaboration, the first person I thought of was him. He said, “Yes,” and I think his voice adds the perfect touch. It's one of the most straightforward country songs, just with an appreciation of small-town life.”

“Milestones,” written with Galyon and Hungate, delves into the compromises that come with life as a musician on the road. “I remember Nicole asking me, 'How are you?' And I said, “Good,” but she said, “No, how are you really?” And I just started crying and telling her all these things I've been through and the pain of missing milestones. You hold it in one hand, the incredible opportunities I have, and then in the other hand are all the milestones you have to miss. it's just that exchange. But I think anyone can relate to it in a sense. My team is very good and thanks me for that too. I am a people pleaser. I don't like to disappoint. But I think it's about figuring out what the most important moments in my life are and making sure those stay on the calendar and then everything else works around that.”

Meanwhile, “Red Flag” serves as a big sister to Wilson's “Hey Girl” my jesus album.

“All the little girls love 'Hey Girl,' and we thought, 'What's the grown-up version of this song?' After you have told them about their identity in Christ and that they love themselves, the next thing is a boy comes into the picture. I've never written a song about a boy—because, thankfully, I've never had a bad breakup story—but my mom always told me about the red flags, “Look for this and don't look for that.” That song ended up being a follow-up to 'Hey Girl', to encourage them and tell them what to look for.”

While sonically and thematically, the album weaves together the threads that bind country and Christian music, the title track stems from her struggles to combine the two genres.

Wilson had been taking this title to the writing rooms for a few years, but says, “Nobody wanted to write the song. They were like, “How do we write a song called 'Rebel' when you're this half-hearted, sweet Christian girl who's not a rebel at all?”… At one point, I took a song to [Christian] radio and they said it was too country to play, although the message was very faith-based. I remember being disappointed, as any artist would be, but it fueled me to want to write this album. A lot of the reason we called it “Rebel” is because I decided I was going to be who I am. I'm not going to change who I am to please Christian radio and I'm not going to change who I am to please country radio.”

To that end, her upcoming summer dates will feature a mix of Christian and country festival slots — with Wilson playing the same set of songs whether she's playing to a country- or CCM-leaning crowd. One thing Wilson is looking forward to is performing at a festival around the country where Lainey Wilson is also playing: “So hopefully, we'll try to play [“Praying Woman”] together,” he says.

Wilson is also set to embark on her second headlining tour in the fall.