Kickin’ Song of the Week, Maren Morris – ‘My Church’

Maren Morris has burst onto the national music scene with her first major label single “My Church”. What a lot of people don't know is that Morris had been writing and touring as an artist for a decade before moving to Nashville as a writer, not an artist.

Morris is a Dallas native where she grew up singing around a lot of the same places in Texas as Kacey Musgraves, who refers to Maren as 'the tiny girl with the huge voice'. The two became friends and eventually Musgraves moved to Nashville.

Maren started taking trips to visit Musgraves and making connections in Nashville. She then decided to make the move herself. Morris eventually signed with Big Yellow Dog and got her chance to co-write with some of the greats like Shane McAnally.

After co-writing numerous great songs with Maren, McAnally said 'I’m always perplexed by someone who is as young as she is and already has it figured out. She’s one of those rare artists who at her age, already knows who she is. She’s a badass.'  ,

After a lot of focus on writing, Maren decided to cut loose on a vocal demo for a song that she and McAnally co-wrote. McAnally sent the song demo to Kelly Clarkson. The first thing Kelly said was, ‘Who is that singing and wanted to hear more of Maren. Kelly recorded the song and it was featured on the deluxe version of Clarkson’s GRAMMY-nominated Piece By Piece.

Of course this was all very encouraging to Morris who decided to record some songs before she had any label support. She says it was just for fun....but those sessions led to songs like “My Church”.

Morris’ feels that she’s found a strong balance between what she has experienced in Nashville, and the foundation she built in Texas. “I feel like both worlds can coexist,” says Morris. “The blend of it being authentic and rebellious, but also commercial; there’s a way to blend those two and it not be so exclusive to each other.”

Most of what will probably be Morris’ upcoming record has already been written and recorded, but she’s taking her time with the release. For now, she’s on the road promoting “My Church”  and gearing up for a lot of touring dates including opening for artists like Chris Stapleton, Keith Urban, and overseas dates.

'My Church' has been a big success for Maren Morris. Give it a listen in the above lyric video and listen for it on Kickin' Country 103.1.