If I Was Country

Lore & Background

The story behind If I Was Country is inseparable from Wallen's life before the cameras. Growing up in Sullivan County, Tennessee, he spent his teens driving to Nashville to sit in on songwriting sessions and playing open mics in local bars. The album's title track, in particular, captures that tension: a young man who loves country music but questions whether he's 'real' enough to claim it. That self-doubt runs through several tracks, giving the record an introspective undercurrent beneath its party-ready surface.

Production-wise, the album leans into a live, roomy sound—guitars that breathe, drums that hit like a fist on a bar top, and Wallen's voice sitting slightly forward in the mix so you can hear every crack and rasp. That was a deliberate choice to keep the production feeling like a band playing in the next booth rather than a studio construct. It gave the record a texture that resonated with fans who felt the modern country landscape had become too slick.

For the broader country scene in 2018, the album arrived at a moment when audiences were hungry for something less formulaic. Wallen's blend of rock-inflected energy with genuine country lyricism positioned him as a bridge between the two worlds, and the album's modest-but-steady chart performance signaled that a new voice was entering the conversation.

In Their Own Story

The honky-tonk in Sullivan County is doing its Friday-night thing—neon buzzing, jukebox grinding out something with a pedal steel. A kid in a flannel shirt that's a size too big sits in the back booth, a half-empty glass of cheap bourbon in front of him. He's been writing in a napkin all evening, tearing off lines, crumpling them, starting over. The bartender slides him another shot without being asked. Outside, a truck engine coughs to life. He looks up, laughs at nothing, and hums a melody that'll end up on a record. The jukebox skips. Nobody notices. The night is young, and the song isn't finished yet—but it's close.

Reader's Guide

2018 · Big Loud Records

If I Was Country opens the Morgan Wallen story the way a first draft opens a novel: rough, honest, and unapologetically personal. Coming off the national spotlight of The Voice, Wallen had to decide whether to lean into the polished, radio-ready Nashville machine or trust the voice that had made a room of judges and a TV audience stop and listen. This album is his answer: trust the voice.

The record was largely shaped in sessions with producers Frank Rogers and Josh Osborne, who helped him find a sound that sat between a garage-rock rehearsal and a Sunday-morning porch session. Several tracks were written in the same late-night writing sessions, which gives the album a through-line of mood—late, tired, a little drunk, a lot real. 'Whiskey Rides' and 'Thirsty' were the singles that broke the album to wider country radio, each one a small manifesto about showing up as yourself in a genre that often demands a costume.

Because this is the debut, there's no predecessor to measure against—only the raw singles and The Voice performances that preceded it. The leap in confidence and sonic cohesion is striking: where the TV performances were moments, the album is a sustained argument that this kid belongs in the genre he loves.

Commercially, the album charted on the Billboard 200 and found a devoted following in the country and rock-crossover spaces. Critics noted the production's lived-in quality and Wallen's unpolished vocal delivery as the record's greatest strengths, framing it as a genuine introduction rather than a calculated launch. For fans, it remains the album where you first met him—before the stadiums, before the superlatives, just a young man with a guitar and a story to tell.

Did You Know?

• The album's title reflects Wallen's own admission that he spent years wondering whether he was 'real' country or just a rock kid who liked twangy songs.
• Several tracks on the record were written during the same late-night writing sessions, giving the album a cohesive, almost diaries-like feel.
• The production deliberately kept Wallen's voice slightly forward and unpolished, a choice made to preserve the 'next-booth' feel of a live bar performance.
• The album arrived just over a year after his The Voice run, meaning the gap between TV exposure and a full-length record was unusually short for a country debut.