Hailey Whitters & ERNEST Herald Upcoming 7-track Duet Collaboration “COUNTRYPOLITAN” With Release of Classic Cover
The good news just keeps coming for fans of Iowa native Hailey Whitters. Following on from the release of her deluxe album “Living The Dream“, her first ever CMT Music Award Nomination (Video of the Year for “Fillin’ My Cup” feat Little Big Town) and being named the inaugural Opry NextStage artist of 2021 comes the announcement of a new collaboration with chart-topping singer-songwriter ERNEST, the 7-track EP “COUNTRYPOLITAN”. Currently nominated for Breakthrough Artist-Writer of the Year at the 2021 MusicRow Awards, ERNEST recently notched up his fourth No.1 hit as a songwriter with Sam Hunt’s “Breaking Up Was Easy In The ’90s”.
Produced by Jake Gear, the collection will be released on September 17th via Big Loud/Songs and Daughters/Pigasus and features six original songs penned by Hailey and ERNEST alongside their cover of the Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers classic “Islands In The Stream” which is out now alongside this fabulous official video directed by Harper Smith… apparently the van they ride in is Hayley’s old touring van (originally her Dad’s which he used for his construction business!) and her dress was a $35 thrift store find inspired by an old photo of Dolly .
In fact it was a love of such classic country duets that Hailey and ERNEST were raised on which inspired the entire COUNTRYPOLITAN project. As Hailey explains, “One day I was going down the rabbit hole listening to old country duets. It seemed like back in the day everyone used to release collaboration records… Dolly and Kenny, Loretta and Conway, Tammy and George… you don’t really see full length records like that anymore and I was thinking it would be fun to do a project like that in today’s modern era. I sat on the idea waiting for the right partner and the first day Ern and i wrote it just felt like a natural fit“.
ERNEST adds “I didn’t know it at the time, but Countrypolitan means the Nashville sound. This is such a cool side project because I love old school music. It was fun to write with that in mind, but still with a fresh perspective. The production on this project is awesome, and the band was great. There are real strings, real fiddle. It feels like it all came together in the blink of an eye“.
Sounds like a fantastic release is on its way! And Hailey’s fans Stateside have the chance to catch her out on the road this Autumn as she is set to open string of dates for Midland on their “The Last Resort Tour”.
COUNTRYPOLITAN Tracklist:
1. Islands In The Stream ( stream here https://countrypolitan.lnk.to/IslandsInTheStream )
2. Say Anything
3. String Me Along
4. One Less Whiskey
5. White Limousine
6. Every Piece Of Me
7. Neon Silver & Jukebox Gold
Article written by Lesley Hastings (twitter.com/lesleyhastings)
