Monica Is Working On A Country Album! Says It Could Be Released By The End Of The Year

August 11, 2021 by C.J. in Music with 0 Comments

Monica Is Working On A Country Album! Says It Could Be Released By The End Of The Year

Grammy-winning R&B singer Monica is taking on another genre.

She revealed during an interview with Billboard that she’s working on a country album.

While she’s gearing up for the release of her new album Trenches, she said she’s already finding inspiration for the one that will come after. She saluted country legends Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers for serving as the artists who helped her fall in love with the genre and said she was also in the studio with Brandi Carlile recently.

Dolly Parton

Monica has already made her entrance into the country music space. In June, she was featured on Jimmie Allen’s “Pray” with Little Big Town.

She opened up about how the collaboration came to be and said,

“Jimmie Allen is an incredible guy who loves his family and knows they’ve brought him through a tremendous amount of things. That’s what we related most about. Jimmie didn’t call me for “Pray” because he heard I was doing a country album, no one knew. He called because he wanted me on it, that means it was meant [to be].”

She continued and said here forthcoming country album could be available later this year.

“I met Little Big Town when Brandi Carlile and I were in the studio working on my country album — it may be out before the end of the year — and I heard harmonies up the hallway. That turned into them participating on “Pray,” so it was one of those real organic situations after Jimmie called me about doing the record.”

Monica

She added that her love for country music is nothing new.

“I grew up loving country music and my stepfather, who raised me, is a Methodist minister, but he also drove buses and he would take us to Nashville, Gatlinburg and Dollywood in Tennessee. I became a really big fan of Dolly Parton, at about 8 or 9 years old. That was my real introduction to country music. Shortly after, it was Kenny Rogers. I started listening to the depth of the songs and the fact that they were unafraid to say whatever it was they felt. I felt like this was a great time for me to really step into an area that I’ve always admired and loved.?We’re just getting started, but I have so enjoyed it and been welcomed with open arms.”

She also touched on her Verzuz with Brandy, which many saw as a chance for the two to settle their drama.

“If there was a hatchet, I buried it many years ago. But I [did] not verbally [say] that to her, because we don’t have a reason to have an issue. The promotion of “The Boy Is Mine” and everything else was made really complex by other people, not by us.”

Brandy, Monica

She continued,

“We really didn’t know each other. We had not spent any extensive amount of time around one another. It was the unfortunate pitfalls of the music industry and them putting women at each other’s throats. At that time, they were putting kids at each other’s throats. There were skits about us. There were people choosing sides. That’s why I’m not a big fan of when they put women at each other’s throats, because I know all too well how real it can become.

“Those things festered and became very real over time. It was important for us to have the conversation that we had, but we had it just before the whole world saw us sitting next to each other [during Verzuz].”

Mary J. Blige

As for future collaborations, Monica said Mary J. Blige is on her bucket list.

“Mary J. Blige is the first person that comes to mind, simply because our friendship is next level. She tells the truth in her music. She’s OK with who she is. She is definitely one of the people that paved the way for me to be able to speak and live in my truth.”

What are your thoughts on Monica doing a country album? Comment and let us know.