Life at 21St century is complex.
Besides all the old stuff – keeping gas in the tank and air in the tires, picking up the kids on time, stressing over an unreasonable boss – the digital age has piled on more issues: endless passwords, inconvenient Windows updates, social trolls media and dead phone batteries. If that is not enough, we are told that democracy is under siege.
The good news is that a small adjustment in posture can reduce stress, at least for three minutes, and Chayce Beckham aims to provide that relief. “Everything I Need” — the follow-up to “23,” which hit No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart dated April 6 — comes with a quick beat, bright production and a lyrical reminder to focus on the few things that really matter material.
“You don't need all these bells and whistles and fancy things,” Beckham says. “Being alive on a sunny day is worth a million dollars.”
In keeping with that sentiment, Beckham didn't write “Everything I Need” during a typical Music Row office date. The song was performed on the road during Luke Bryan's 2023 Farm tour, where concert venues are built on farm land. It started Sept. 14 out of Shelbyville, Ky., midway between Louisville and Lexington. Beckham brought along a pair of songwriters, John Pearce (“Sweet Annie,” “Your Heart Or Mine”) and Lindsey Rhimes (“World On Fire,” “Cool Again”), for what proved to be a productive effort. They knocked out the outlawed 'Devil I've Been' and started into another as they puffed on cigars that first day.
“It's really great as a writer to watch an audience, to watch the artist you're working with,” Pierce says of writing on tour. “You can see what's needed in a set. You can find the hole and fill it.”
They specifically talked about creating something upbeat and upbeat – apparently to fill a need – and Rimes began an easy guitar progression. He attached a rolling train to it, and they went ahead without a real title, focusing on the half-full version of everyday life.
It wasn't hard to adapt to Beckham's personal experience. Weeds in the lawn, credit card debt and a broken engine – the latter of which Pearce traced to a previous co-writer at Beckham's home – all used real-world issues to set up the story. “John was on fire,” Rhimes recalls. “He was spitting lyrics, you know, the broken radiator and all that. We just started recording stuff about washing machines.”
Pearce coined a phrase – “postcard maker” – to describe a sunny day at the end of the first verse, he enters the chorus, where the melody brightens and the story turns completely away from problems to very basic positives: “I'm alive and breathing ».
“We knew the tune had to change a little bit, just have a lot more power in the chorus,” says Beckham. “We just went back there to jam an acoustic guitar and kind of get away from this thing.”
The plot of the chorus morphs into an all-nighter, with the protagonist fully adjusting his stance in classic – and easily missed – wordplay: “When the sun comes up, I'll let it dawn on me/ I've got what I need.”
Even if the “dawn” joke doesn't fully register with the listener, the premise of the hook lands clearly. “The line before the hook,” says Pierce, “is the most important line in almost any song.”
The three writers made verse two only half the length of the opening verse, noting that the bad times – like the verse itself – “won't be around for long”. Instead, the verse re-entered the chorus, following a Nashville songwriter code. “It's that kind of song, and it was like, 'Don't bore us, go to the chorus,' definitely on that one,” Pierce says. “Is not [shorter] because we were lazy, I swear.'
It didn't need a bridge, since that chorus pretty much said it all anyway. “He's got everything he needs,” says Beckham. “You don't need to do anything extra with it.”
Rhymes loaded some guitar tracks over the drumming onto the tour bus to form the bones of a demo they played for Beckham's band the next day. He would throw in bass and a few other instruments after he got back to Nashville, but not much. “I kept it pretty simple,” says Rimes. “I didn't put on any bells and whistles. It was very country.”
When producer Bart Butler (Jon Pardi, Warren Zeiders) heard “Everything I Need,” he identified it as a sleeper, but didn't have much time to work on it. Wheelhouse put out a full-length album, but came in on a tight deadline. When Butler was cast, he had to assemble a studio band in a short week. Some of the musicians he regularly worked with rearranged other gigs to work on a master session, but when his usual lineup of acoustic guitarists was closed, he asked electric guitarist Rob McNelley for a recommendation. Multi-instrumentalist Gideon Klein became a staple of the group when they recorded at Starstruck Studios.
The studio set recreated the basics of Rimes' demo – “It was such a great, great road map,” says Butler. “It sounded like a record.” But he also thought it needed a signature instrumental lick. McNelley and Klein worked together to create a lively uplifting sound, heard in the electric in the opening and the banjo later in the track. Steel guitarist Russ Pahl playfully weaved wraps around this sig lick, and violinist Jenee Fleenor fleshed it out even more in the overdubs.
At the final conclusion of the follow-up date, Butler encouraged the band to take off on a closing vamp, which spent another 35 seconds on “Everything I Need” before fading out.
Beckham did vocal overdubs for them Bad for me album centered around Ronnie Milsap's former studio, now known as Ronnie's Place, while battling physical challenges. “I got bronchitis or some horrible cold and endless, deep congestion and a cough that lasted for weeks,” she says.
On at least one date, he struggled so much that Butler sent him home, but Beckham was determined to deal with it on the days his voice was available. “This is my debut record,” he says. “I have to sing things.”
When they released the album, Wheelhouse had some problems with the volume on “Everything”, which contradicted the message of simplicity. Butler revisited the mix, but never let go of the energy. “There was more to that piece,” he allows. “It's still busy, but it's been a lot busier.”
Sleep eventually became a single when Wheelhouse released “Everything I Need” to country radio via PlayMPE on April 12. Predictably, many stations requested an edit over the next two weeks that would remove the instrumental vamp. Butler wasn't surprised by the request, even if he hated to leave this department.
“I understand,” he says. “All you have to do is get to three minutes and have radio time for everyone else.” The final version also provides three minutes of relief for listeners who may not have time to deal with all the loose ends of their complicated lives.
“'All I Need' is a great way to usher in the summer,” says Beckham, “and for everyone to take a mental break and listen to something that makes them feel good.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/chayce-beckham-everything-i-need-makin-tracks-1235680185/
