Luke Combs

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  • What You See Ain't Always What You Get (Deluxe Edition)
    What You See Ain't Always What You Get (Deluxe Edition)
    What You See Ain't Always What You Get (Deluxe Edition)

    Luke Combs could’ve relied on a formula popular with so many of his country peers during the 2010s: swaggeringly flirtatious, beat-driven jams. Instead, he circled back to the evergreen country approach of placing a persuasive persona at the heart of his music, and quickly fired up a fanbase with his way of inhabiting the good-humoured blue-collar regular-guy role. It helped that his songwriting was sturdy and clever and his performances hearty. On the follow-up to Combs’ blockbuster 2017 debut, that vantage point is even more robust, and also more knowing. “Beer Never Broke My Heart”, a propulsive honky-tonk number that initially appeared on an EP, is a mischievous take on avoiding emotional investment in anything with the potential to disappoint, and “1, 2 Many” is a vigorous barroom boogie featuring Brooks & Dunn—experts at that style—and full of playfully cocky bragging about boozy bad behaviour. “I think country music fans like songs that they can drink and have a good time to,” Combs tells Apple Music. “The fast-pumping rhythms and big Telecaster guitars take you back to what country music was like in the ’90s. Country fans are starved for an uptempo song, and that’s what this is.” Combs is equally charismatic delivering more sensitive songs, like the romantic ballad “Nothing Like You” and “Does to Me”, a collaboration with Eric Church that takes pride in down-to-earth sincerity. In "New Every Day" and "Every Little Bit Helps", Combs brings satisfyingly agile exertion to hooks that would humble a lesser singer. He continued his partnership with producer Scott Moffatt and core co-writer Ray Fulcher, re-energising both muscular and supple sounds learned from a couple of generations of hard country predecessors. Here Combs talks through the five tracks included on this deluxe edition. Cold as You "I love writing these kind of songs, with these big choruses. When we went into the studio, I felt like the song didn't turn out differently. We were like, 'Hey, let's just make this song what it already is. Let's not overthink this thing, and just have fun with it.' We wanted to make it strong and make it fun." The Other Guy "I had written that song a number of years ago, probably three years ago now. I wrote that song with my stage-right guitar player Rob Williford and a guy by the name of Brandon Kinney, who I like a lot. I'd had that idea in my phone for a while and knew that I wanted to turn that phrase ['you should see the other guy'] on its head and do something different with it. It just came at an awkward time when we wrote it, in between different things we were doing. So it never got on the deluxe of This One's for You. When it came time to do this deluxe, I was going through stuff I'd written and stumbled back across thing and thought, 'Man, this thing is really good.' So I decided to pull the trigger on it. It's one of my favourite tunes we have." My Kinda Folk “This was a song that my guitar tech had started and sent to me. I heard the bit of the chorus he had and thought it was really great. We ended up hanging and having a couple of beers and finishing that song. And the song really does speak to that whole thing, just dudes hanging out, writing songs. That's the guys we are. I think it speaks a lot to the fans and to myself and to my buddies as well." Without You (feat. Amanda Shires) "We wrote that song up in Boone, North Carolina. I have a lot of writing trips that I do up there, maybe once a year. I bring a lot of my friends up and write for about two weeks. Ever since I did 'This One's for You', I wanted to do something that was similar, along those lines, but spoke more to the moment I was in now. I wanted to talk to my parents and to my wife and to the fans, the people that keep me going when I'm not feeling great or I'm having a bad day. And working with Amanda Shires was really great. She played fiddle with me last year on the ACMs. When we went into the studio, I said, 'This should be a fiddle-heavy track.' So we shot it over to her and she put some fiddle on it and it turned out really great." Forever After All "That was actually the first song that I wrote in our house out here in Tennessee. My wife and I bought our first house together about a year ago. It was really neat to have that first song be here. I wrote that with Rob Williford and Drew Parker, two guys I write with pretty frequently and I'm very comfortable with and that I feel like I write great stuff with. So it's easier to open up with guys that you've written with a lot. Once we teased the song, people's reaction was really awesome. I don't think we expected it to be that big."

  • This One’s for You Too (Deluxe Edition)
    This One’s for You Too (Deluxe Edition)
    This One’s for You Too (Deluxe Edition)

    Luke Combs’ chart-conquering “Hurricane”, a stormy torch song about a love the narrator just can’t quit, heralded the 2016 arrival of a towering new voice in country music. Combs’ North Carolina-tinged vocals—a combination of grit and soul as suited to intimate moments as arena-rocking grandeur—were something of a revelation in Music City; he clearly had the range. By the time his debut album, 2017’s This One’s for You, made good on the promise of “Hurricane”, Combs had just turned 27. His gruff voice and deft songwriting hand—as well as his approach to songwriting—provided evidence that he was an industry-shaking talent. When Combs moved to Nashville in 2014, he made a point of writing with untested names, like Ray Fulcher, with the intent of just writing songs that Southern boys like themselves would like to hear. He shows his age on songs like the rollicking drinking anthem “Beer Can” or the album’s second single “When It Rains It Pours”, a triumphant tale of a dumped slacker who hits an unbelievable “redneck roll” of good fortune. But even on his first album, it was clear Combs contains multitudes. “When It Rains It Pours” leads directly into the title track, a moving ode to the friends, family and fans who supported him on his path to country stardom. On the earthy “I Got Away With You”, Combs sincerely compares his luck in love with pulling off a heist of the Crown Jewels. He turns the mood around again with “Honky Tonk Highway”, a roadhouse banger that recalls the punchy classics of Brooks & Dunn. Shuttling between these vibes sets the tone for Combs’ career, identifying him as an authentic presence in Nashville, a sensitive and down-to-earth balladeer who can also turn up and rock out. The 2018 deluxe reissue, dubbed This One’s for You Too, adds five tracks to the original that largely flesh out Combs’ sensitive side, with songs like the sweet “Beautiful Crazy” and heartbroken “She Got the Best of Me” paving the album’s way to going multiple times Platinum.

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About Luke Combs

Luke Combs’ rough-around-the-edges brand of country music provides a welcome foil to Music City’s polished radio fare, mixing versatile songwriting with hard-rock dynamics while always staying true to the genre’s established values. While new artists usually get a cold reception from country radio, Combs (born in 1990 and raised in North Carolina) barged right through any obstacles. His 2016 debut single, “Hurricane”, went to No. 1 on the U.S. country charts. The following year, his second single, “When It Rains It Pours”, went to No. 1. By 2019, Combs was the first country artist in history whose first seven singles went to No. 1—a streak he extended to a lucky 13—and he was soon headlining arenas. It seemed like overnight success, but it wasn’t. Combs moulded his signature sound—a bold, yearning tenor, Southern rock guitars, hip-hop-imbued beats—and released three independent EPs before a major label signed him. It doesn’t hurt that he has an Everyman appeal, looking, he’s said, not like a star but like a typical country fan. In a sea of styled and coiffed Nashville stars, Combs' unkempt manner is a statement of rural masculinity. That attitude is reflected in his thick, raucous sound, but he’s also a diverse songwriter who can toggle from rowdy and loose to sweet and devoted, funny to sentimental. Case in point is the faithful and impassioned 2023 rendition of Tracy Chapman’s classic 1988 track “Fast Car”—Combs’ self-proclaimed favourite song—from his fourth record, Gettin’ Old. In the ’90s, Garth Brooks gave country music the scope of arena rock; Combs has taken up that mantle, shaping it anew for his own generation while keeping the roots of tradition intact.

FROM
Huntersville, NC, United States
BORN
2 March 1990
GENRE
Country

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