Since making his self-titled debut with Broken Bow Records in 2012, Dustin Lynch has steadily risen through country’s ranks, amassing a devoted fanbase with strings of hit singles and plenty of time spent on the road. Blue in the Sky, his fifth album, is Lynch’s most assured project yet, showing off not just his beloved singing voice, but his knack for choosing hits (he’s also listed as a co-writer on five of the 12 tracks). MacKenzie Porter guests on smash single “Thinking ’Bout You”, which notched an impressive six weeks at number one on country radio. Lynch teams up with Chris Lane for the playful “Tequila on a Boat”. And Riley Green joins him for “Huntin’ Land”, an ode to “a couple thousand acres up in Kentucky” prime for hunting. Below, Lynch walks Apple Music through a few key tracks on Blue in the Sky. “Party Mode” “I’d just gone through a breakup, and I remember you have that kind of heart-wrenching inside, and you can’t sleep for weeks on end. You’re looking like hell. Me and my buddies decided, ‘Let’s go into downtown Nashville and jump around some honky-tonks.’ We were in the Uber, heading downtown. I just remember this sense of this weight coming off of me and this new feeling of going, ‘Let’s embrace the unknown. That’s the past, and we got the whole rest of life in front of us.’ That excites me. I think that’s why ‘Party Mode’ really jumped out at me, because it is a breakup song but it’s fun.” “Thinking ’Bout You” (feat. MacKenzie Porter) “What was fun about this whole process was that MacKenzie’s never had a single on the charts in the States. So, she’s texting me like, ‘Hey, my team’s telling me this is kind of cool and this is a good sign.’ I’m like, ‘MacKenzie, this is not normal. This is about to be mega.’ So, we got to see the signs early on and then just enjoy the ride. As the song started climbing, we were able to go out and play some shows, both she and I, and get to feel the familiarity come across the crowd each night and enjoy that. But you can’t plan six weeks at number one. You can’t plan for a song to have success like that. It set a record for my career. It set a record for my record label.” “Somethin’ That Makes You Smile” “I literally had shampoo in my hair whenever I heard this song. I was in California, and we were a week before, I think, in the last recording session. So, my inboxes get flooded, because people know that it’s the last round of recording before this album’s wrapped up. I started playing songs when I was in the shower, and that’s one that came on and it just floored me. It’s definitely my mom’s favourite song on this album. I just love the message behind it: Every day we’ve got a choice, and whether it’s with your career or with what you choose to do for fun, your hobbies, make sure it makes you smile. Life’s too short not to.” “Tennessee Trouble” “I moved [to Nashville] on a golf scholarship to go to college and just started chasing songwriting. I realised that cover bands were something that kind of fired me up. So, I started working on that set list and that grew into playing on the street here to picking up gigs at UT Knoxville and a lot of other SEC schools. But UT Knoxville is within striking distance, and there’s a club out there called Cotton Eyed Joe. A lot of the times, we would play a frat party, and then, instead of driving home, we’d get a hotel room and then go catch a show at the Cotton Eyed Joe the next night. Just being 21, 22 and experiencing travelling with a band in Knoxville, playing a frat party and then going to watch young, up-and-coming artists at this club, all of those memories. Getting to step on a tour bus for the first time in that parking lot. It kind of takes me back there.” “Not Every Cowboy” “I’ve realised the world’s obsessed with the cowboy culture in America. I’ve gotten to travel to a lot of cool places, and everybody’s obsessed with the Westerns for whatever reason. They have Western dress-up nights in Japan, for God’s sake. Yeah, I think it’ll never go out of style. That type of song is tough to write where it doesn’t feel dated. ‘Not Every Cowboy’ was something that came across, and it didn’t feel like it was from 1997.”