713
A small-town area code became the loudest voice in country music.
713 is the second studio album by country artist Morgan Wallen, released in 2021 on Big Loud Records. Named after the area code tied to his small-town Tennessee roots, the record cemented Wallen's transition from breakout talent to one of the most dominant voices in modern country music. It arrived in the wake of his 2019 debut, *If I'm Honest*, and expanded on the raw, conversational songwriting that first captured audiences while sharpening its production and emotional range.
The album functions as a narrative arc: it moves through longing, self-reflection, and hard-won acceptance, anchored by a title track that became an anthem for fans who see Wallen as a voice for the overlooked and the earnest. For the fan community, 713 represents the moment Wallen stopped being a surprise and became a standard.
- Artist
- Morgan Wallen
- Release year
- 2021
- Label
- Big Loud Records
- Album number
- Second studio album
- Key producer
- Zach Crowell
- Named after
- Area code of Wallen's Tennessee hometown
Lore & Background
In the lore fans build around Wallen's catalog, 713 occupies the 'coming-of-age' slot. His debut had been the kid from Sneedville who walked into a Nashville session and somehow made the room go quiet. 713 is the album where he stopped apologizing for that accent, that cadence, that slightly slurred delivery that critics either adored or dismissed. The songs feel like they were written in a truck cab at 1 a.m., half-remembered by morning, and that imperfection became the album's signature.
Zach Crowell's production is often cited by fans as the secret engine behind the record's warmth. Where the debut leaned on straightforward, almost stripped-back arrangements, 713 layers in richer textures—subtle pedal steel, a slightly wider vocal chain, a sense of space that lets each lyric land before the next one arrives. The result is an album that sounds intimate even at stadium volume.
Within the broader Wallen universe, 713 also marks a thematic shift: the narrator is no longer just chasing or losing; he's sitting with what he has and naming it. Fans who track the emotional throughline across his discography often describe the debut as a question and 713 as the first honest answer.
In Their Own Story
The porch light in Sneedville had been out for three days. Morgan didn't notice until he pulled the truck up and stepped out into the dark, boots finding the warped boards by memory. He sat on the tailgate, phone face-down on the wood, and sang a line he'd been turning over for weeks—something about a name you say out loud just to make sure it's still yours. A neighbor's dog barked twice, then stopped. The hum of the highway four miles east filled the silence like a second instrument. He recorded the verse on his phone, voice rough, and didn't listen back until the next morning. By then it was done. By then it was 713.
Reader's Guide
2021, Big Loud Records. After the 2019 debut *If I'm Honest* introduced Wallen as a voice of unpolished sincerity, 713 deepens that identity without repeating it. The album was shaped heavily by producer Zach Crowell, whose sessions emphasized vocal texture and space over ornamentation. Several tracks were reportedly written and recorded in close proximity, giving the record a cohesive, almost diaries-in-a-binder feel.
Compared to the debut, the growth is audible: the arrangements breathe wider, the lyrical perspective shifts from reactive (chasing, losing, drinking away the gap) to reflective (naming what you actually feel, sitting with it). The title track itself—named for the area code of his Tennessee hometown—functions as both an anthem and a quiet declaration of belonging.
Commercially, 713 was a landmark: it debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 and spawned multiple singles that dominated country radio and streaming charts through late 2021 and into 2022. Critics praised its emotional directness and production warmth, while a few noted the deliberate, almost confrontational vocal style that divides audiences. For fans, it remains the album where Wallen stopped being a discovery and became a fixture.
Did You Know?
- The album's title references the area code associated with Wallen's hometown in Tennessee, turning a geographic identifier into a personal brand.
- Zach Crowell served as a primary producer and creative collaborator, shaping the album's signature warm, spacious sound.
- 713 followed Wallen's 2019 debut *If I'm Honest*, and the two records are often read as a question-and-answer pair by fans tracking his narrative arc.
- The album's vocal delivery—slightly slurred, conversational, unpolished—became so central to Wallen's identity that it sparked ongoing public debate about authenticity in country music.
More in Albums & Discography
Elsewhere in the Morgan Wallen universe
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