Charlie Worsham Talks New Album ‘Once Upon a Second Time Around’ & Forging a Multi-Faceted Career: ‘I Have a Proverbial Seat at the Table’
Categoria: Musica
Charlie Worsham issues his first independent album, including collabs with Lainey Wilson, Stephen Wilson Jr. and The Travelin' McCourys.
Por Billboard | 07/08/2026
Two decades after studying at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and relocating to Nashville, Mississippi native Charlie Worsham has forged a career as an award-winning artist/songwriter/musician. He’s a multi-hyphenate artist in his own right, but is also a first-call session player, touring bandmate, and essential thread in the fabric of country music’s current landscape. His new album, Once Upon a Second Time Around , out Friday (Aug. 7), is his third full-length solo project, following 2013’s Rubberband and 2017’s The Beginning of Things , as well as the 2023 EP Compadres , but also launches a new independent era: The album is out on ONErpm after he spent years with Warner Records Nashville. Concurrently with releasing his own music, Worsham has lent his prowess on guitar, mandolin, banjo and songwriting to albums by Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Ella Langley, Kacey Musgraves, Kip Moore, Sam Williams, Luke Combs, and Dierks Bentley. He’s been part of touring bands for Vince Gill and Bentley, as well as briefly joining Old Crow Medicine Show. Early in his career, he played in the country group Kingbilly, where one of his bandmates was Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne. “When you move to town, you need a little piss and vinegar, a little bit of an attitude, which I [had]. I had the great fortune of moving into a house and band with all these great musical big brothers I never had. Chief among them, John Osborne. The biggest difference from 21-year-old me to now is I’ve learned to let go of so much and in letting go, my hands are free to pick up the really beautiful parts.” Two decades in the industry have helped Worsham, 40, arrive at a moment where he’s redefined for himself what constitutes success. “It’s very easy to have blinders on as a young artist in town because the definition of success can be so narrow. What’s great in this moment is I have that proverbial seat at the table. I know enough to know now that what I was really tightly clinging to and what felt like anger was really fear that I wouldn’t have this permanent spot in town in this community,” he says. “I think the biggest shift is that I have freedom to expand my definition of success…Any day I wake up and I’m collaborating with people that challenge me and inspire me to be better and I’m being creative, that’s the dream.” His experiences are woven into his new album. Guiding him as a mantra was “The impossible takes longer,” a saying he found in a book of quotes from Nobel Laureate honorees. “It feels that way sometimes, like, ‘How do I get to this place, but bring my bluegrass heart that I have and this Southern rock heart that I have and all these things are starting to take shape?” Worsham co-wrote around half of the album’s dozen songs, though he also worked with Sony Music Publishing’s exec vp of creative Josh Van Valkenburg, who played a key role in finding several of the album’s cuts, including “Family Man,” written by Josh Jenkins, Ben Stennis and Matt