In the success of the song – Rolling Stone



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As a rising artist, Logan Mize has an almost enviable problem. The native of Clearwater, Kansas, would like to start producing new music for his fans, but he has a practical reason to slow down. At the moment, his single "Better Off Gone" is just starting to gain ground on national radio – despite the fact that Come back road, the album on which it appears, is available since two years. It's an eternity in country music and often means death for the momentum of an artist.

Not so here.

"[We] could push back the single until December, maybe even January or February, "says Mize, sitting in a newsroom at Music Row's Big Yellow Dog. "You can not really start pushing another album if you're trying to get your single on the radio."

To rebadure fans, Mize and Big Yellow Dog have released the From the vault EP in May, compiling five tracks that Mize had written and recorded before signing with Sony Music Nashville in 2014. This short-term contract with a major label resulted in an EP and a single of 2015, "Impossible to s & # 39, get away from it all, "Who cracked the Top 60.

When Mize released independently Come back road in July 2017, his situation had changed dramatically. He was no longer on a label, he did not have a radio promotion team behind him, and he did not have a tube catalog to his credit. What he had, however, was a main single that would eventually move the entire album forward.

"It's not always beautiful", the nostalgic slice of Mize's piano-led hometown got off to a good start on the country's streaming service playlists and received praise from Bobby Bones, personality of the radio. Although it did not really benefit from the broadcast of terrestrial radio, its streams followed at least the rhythm of the country singles published around the same time. At the moment, it has 38 million streams only on Spotify.

The success of the song was enough to convince Mize and Big Yellow Dog that it was time to move up a gear. The boutique company, which also participated in the development of Meghan Trainor and Maren Morris, made the unusual decision to recruit an internal promotion team to actively launch its next single, "Better Off Gone", on country radio. he was already receiving support on streaming platforms.

"Our society and our thinking process always follows the music, and there is no other solution than that," says Carla Wallace, co-owner and CEO of Big Yellow Dog.

"[Once] we really started to see the badyzes and the data, that allowed Big Yellow Dog to say, "OK, it's worth the risk if we can also set up the radio the way we think it should be," says Charly, director of Mize. Salvatore.

A vulnerable ballad that relaxes fleshy guitars and rock-influenced drums, so popular in many contemporary hits from country singers, "Better Off Gone" is also the odd look that Mize has not written. In this case, Canadian singer-songwriter Donovan Woods and Abe Stoklasa of Nashville, who also composed Tim McGraw's "Portland, Maine" and Charlie Worsham's "The Beginning of Things" were close at the same time, while the two terms "a brief period of writing songs about breaks where a woman should leave".

"I like the idea that the narrator of a song is not such a great man," Woods says. "We're always on their side because they sing and it's nice to hear, but it challenges a lot of old songs. Many of these songs do not talk about good guys. "

True to this statement, the song starring Mize singing this inevitable, if she is reluctant, separates herself from the perspective of her character – as a result, we are left mostly to question ourselves about the woman's thought process when she is in the dark. she finds a way out and go from the front. "She will know when the station of her native country will become static / She will never be so far from home," he sings, showing a different side of his artistic talent – the one he's would like to explore more – with Woods and the delicate composition of Stoklasa.

"There is this whole country that just wants to leave work and escape the reality … It's for whom I'm making music"

"It's my travel music. If I'm on a plane or an airport, I always listen to Donovan Woods, "says Mize. "It's that side of me that would like to make such records."

Many of the previous editions of Mize have featured more guitar crunch, or a sensibility of Roger Miller, appeared in the clever word game "I can not get away from having a good time". But the growing success of "Better Off Gone" suggests that he can find a balance between fun songs and introspective people and show an even wider range of his influences.

"If I have to pay money to attend a show, I'll see someone like Jason Isbell," he says. "Or I'll go see something I can really dive in, Dawes or Wilco. But it's not for whom I'm making music. There is this whole country that just wants to leave work and escape the reality to get to a truck, a beer, a field, a simple melody or a simple nursery rhyme. That's why I make music, and if I can twist it with a bit of my personality, it's cool. "

So far, "Better Off Gone" has not really turned the hit of the century, it's still in the lower echelons of the broadcast charts. But she's struggling in a difficult climate for truly independent performers, and her streaming numbers have gone beyond "Is not Always Pretty", as well as many other songs on the radio. Mize has also satisfied the appetites of fans of unique versions such as From the vaultand more recently, a cover of Chainsmokers and Coldplay's "Something Like That". It is indicative of the independent spirit that makes Mize's partnership with Big Yellow Dog so strong, as well as greater ambitions for the future.

"I dream one day to be John Mellencamp with my studio in Indiana and record everything I want.

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