Gabby Barrett’s sophomore album finds the acclaimed singer-songwriter in a new stage of her life. Since debuting with Goldmine in 2020, Barrett and her husband have welcomed two children, with another on the way. It’s fitting, then, that the 23-year-old would have a more grounded perspective on this collection, offering up nuggets of parental wisdom on tracks like “Growin’ Up Raising You” and taking stock of her priorities on “God, Money & Love”. As for the LP title, Chapter & Verse has a dual meaning for Barrett. “‘Chapter and verse’ hearkens a little bit to the Bible, for sure,” she tells Apple Music. “And because I am Christian, a very faith-based person, and I really do try to wrap that into everything that I do, it was so fitting for what the album talks about. It makes so much sense to our life, too. It’s just like, ‘Here’s what happened the last few years, and here’s the chapter that we’re in, and here’s all the little verses of all the different things.’” Below, Barrett shares insight into several key tracks. “The Chapter” “Ross Copperman, who is a good buddy, co-produced the album. We were throwing around different ideas of, ‘What do we want to start the album with? What do we want to end the album with?’ And he actually suggested to me, ‘I think it would be so cool if you did “The Chapter”, and then ended it with “The Verse” because that’s your life. That’s how you are as a person. It just would make sense. Especially “The Verse”, to end it out like that.’” “Dance Like No One’s Watching” “[Luke Combs] has always been super nice to me anytime I’ve talked to him. So, he just texted me and said, ‘Hey, I wrote this song with a couple friends. We told our publishers not to share it with anybody. I just want you to hear it first. It doesn’t make sense for me to sing.’ Because I believe they wrote it when his wife was still pregnant with their first, and before they knew if it was a boy or girl. So, it was a girl-and-dad story, and they had a boy. He thought of me kindly with it.” “Growin’ Up Raising You” “I wrote it about my first [child], and it talks about exactly what the title says: growing up, raising you. Like, I’m 23. I don’t know everything. I’m still learning so much while also raising another girl—raising her into being the person she is and helping her to thrive and to flourish as a woman. And so, I’m learning while she’s learning, and it’s this beautiful dance that you kind of have to figure out together.” “You’re My Texas” “I had not really known [Miranda Lambert] very good before I wrote this song with her. I’ve just always heard great things about her and what a great writer she is, as well. I was able to get in the room with her and Hillary Lindsey, one of my favourite people in the world, and it was so funny. She’s just so real, very country, just very authentically her. ‘Here I am—you either take it or you leave it’ type of thing. And it was really nice. It was really nice to know how she is as a person right away.” “God, Money & Love” “‘God, Money & Love’ really stuck out to me. It just connected. I love the music. I’m a very big melody girl, as well. And then, lyrically, I loved it; I thought it was beautiful. It definitely connects to me. I’m a very faith-based person, and the Lord is very central in my music and what I do, and all things. And so, the topic of ‘God, Money & Love’—those are three really large things that circle around most people’s worlds in some type of way.”