Maren Morris mused, “What do you write when the show can’t go on?”
Morris thinks everyone was likely in the same situation early in the pandemic. Conditions seemed hopeless, and she struggled to find a reason. For the first time in many years, she said she wasn’t in control.
“I wasn’t in control of the fate of my career, or of taking care of all of my people without the promise of touring, or even of my body ’snapping back’ after the birth of my first child,” she wrote on Instagram Thursday. “Each day, my control descended into quiet, unmeasured chaos inside the same four walls.”
She felt fear, she said. But she also felt relief from realizing that she was never in control.
Morris started taking notes, and she announced Thursday that she funneled those experiences into her album “Humble Quest,” which will be available on March 25. The album is home to Morris’ new song “Circles Around This Town.”
“I always found the word ’humble’ perplexing,” she wrote on Instagram. “I frequently hear it assigned to people who are ’relatable’ or ’down to earth’ despite their rise to success. I mostly hear it used by complete strangers who don’t even know the person they’re applying it to.”
She asked herself if she was humble, and the question sparked “Humble Quest.” She learned she was humbled by the pandemic – but also by life experiences, including being too outspoken, being a new mom, and the death of a friend.
“What I also discovered is that the songs I was managing to compose during this time were the most authentic and light lyrics that have ever flowed from my pen,” she shared. “They weren’t fitting with the times, but they were distracting and eventually saving me from the times.”
She told Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen she hopes fans have a similar experience.
“There’s a lot of stuff in there that I’m tackling internally, but my intention with all of it, just from the get-go after we wrote ’Circles [Around This Town],’ actually, was to not steep in self-pity,” she said. “So I don’t feel like there’s any song on ’Humble Quest’ that is woe is me. It’s all really optimistic, looks at very dark, real subjects. My hope is that if this album in listening to it in its entirety does a sliver to fans what it did for me writing it, I will be completely elated and satisfied with that.”
To hear the episode in full, visit apple.co/_TodaysCountry.