One of the most compelling singles of Carrie Underwood's early career was “Cowboy Casanova,” a warning to other women about a “blue-eyed snake” posing for his next victim in a bar, delivered as the big quality guitars KISS were throwing power. chords below.
“Breakin' In Boots” by Matt Stell is the male version of this song. Although the artist says, “I've never thought of that,” the similarities are all there: the nighttime location, the admonition to another man of the danger posed by an alluring female patron, and even a reference to snake skin. In this case, the serpentine comment is a note about the other's leather boots, but it is easy to see the reptilian allusion as an allusion to the woman's forked tongue.
More than anything, it's Stell paying homage to an item in his own closet.
“Years ago, I bought this pair of boots that I had no business buying,” he says. “It took them, I don't know, about a year to make them. They pulled them on my foot and fixed them and I remember when those boots came in. I will be married and buried in these boots. They are pythons.”
The story of “Breakin' In Boots” is also personal. Stell had spotted a woman in a Nashville bar in March wearing boots that looked a lot like his. He was in the process of closing his tab, and by the time he was free to go introduce himself and compare shoes, she was gone.
Within days, Stell pitched into a writers' room at Apple Music's office in Nashville's Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood for a local write-up. After a morning of co-writing, he shared the space that afternoon with writer-producer Joe Fox (“Last Night Lonely”). Los Angeles-based Nate Cyphert (“HOLY”); and Ben Stennis (“Til You Can't”, “Make You Mine”), who introduced the title “Breakin' In Boots”. Everyone loved it, especially Stell.
“The great thing about Stell,” says Stennis, “is that he knows what he wants to do and he's very direct about it.”
The title allowed them to paint a Barroom Barbie as someone repulsed by the use and abuse of men's emotions, and was perfect for an aggressive musical context, which would aid Stell's concerts. With this in mind, Fox began a four-string guitar progression that is either in the key of C-major or the relative A-minor. Since each chord continues to flow into the next, the original foundation is not as clear as it would be if they followed the rules that guided music theory icon JS Bach.
“If you understand Bach, you could certainly understand Matt Stell,” says Fox deadpan.
Stell wanted to throw John Anderson's 'Straight Tequila Night' at the forefront – that 1992 chart-topper recorded a similarly bitter beauty – and it set the right tone, but the writing wasn't entirely linear. They bounced around a bit between the opening verse and the chorus.
“It's like tightening the lug nuts on a tire you're changing,” says Stell. “You start everything and then pinch it like a little star. You don't go one after the other. That's how it works.”
In the middle of the chorus, they identified the woman as a “cowboy killer” who “shoots” bourbon.
“Cowboy Killer” was a title Stell had tried to write before – it was also the hook for album cuts by Jason Aldean and Ian Munsick and Ryan Charles. And Dustin Lynch named his current album Kill the Cowboy.
“We all grew up talking about Marlboros being cowboy killers, at least in Georgia,” says Stennis. “We knew cigarettes were called killer cowboys, so we just thought calling a girl a killer cowboy instead was kind of cool.”
It definitely means he smokes…
“She smokes cigarettes or just smokes pretty,” quips Stennis. “Be one.”
The writing progressed without many setbacks, but “Boots” still needed a bridge, and maybe a little more work on the second verse. Apple, unfortunately, was closing up shop for the day, and with maybe only half an hour of work left, they went to Stell's Ford F-150 in the parking lot and continued to write there in public, undaunted by the prospect. of passers-by listening to their unfinished work.
“I didn't really think about it at the time,” Cyphert says. “But I think we were excited about the song and we were pretty wrapped up in it. We already had the chorus where we knew there was something here. So I think we didn't think so much about who could hear or who was walking.”
Despite this audience-facing scenario, the parking lot is where “Boots” reached its most vulnerable moment. They built a bridge that temporarily broke the repeating chord structure, and the singer repeated his warning that the hot woman would leave potential suitors broken. He implied that he had first-hand knowledge.
“The bridges are always my favorite part of the song,” notes Cyphert. “I think it's nice to give a listener one more new little piece of something before you bring it back into a chorus, and in this case, I feel like the bridge is the most emotional part of the song. It's kind of the soft side of the whole situation.”
Over the next few days, Stennis made a demo with a four-on-the-floor drum pattern that felt like a dance floor. Stell liked it, but had other ideas and asked Fox to make something with a bit more of a rock tone. Fox injected more momentum into it, building back at the end of the first verse a haunting piano background, which made the anthem's launch even more intense. He also developed a down chorus for the section after the bridge and rolled in a high-energy banjo part in the chorus to amp it up even more.
“There's a methodical banjo that permeates this song,” says Stennis.
Stell started using “Breakin' In Boots” as a closer for his concerts almost immediately, replacing “Shut The Truck Up”. They then recorded the final master at the Black River venue on Nashville's Music Row over the summer with a group of studio musicians playing over the Fox demo. Most of his gameplay in that demo caught the dust, although some of it remained intact.
“I would have scheduled drums, but those will be replaced,” says Fox. “It was mostly the little things [that stayed in] — the baritone electric guitar that's in there, that's my guitar from the demo. Same with some of the other guitars that are in there, and there was my banjo from the demo.”
RECORDS Nashville released “Breakin' In Boots” to digital providers on October 6th and then sent it to country radio via PlayMPE on November 6th. The woman who inspired it will probably never know it's the issue.
And Stell still doesn't know if it's really the heartbreak the song implies.
“It very well could have been,” he allows. “I never had a chance to find out.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/makin-tracks-matt-stell-breakin-in-boots-1235579237/