Exclusive: Joe Nichols Cranks Up ‘Country Boy’ On New Album, Annie Bosco Duet

Joe Nichols doesn’t make a habit of recording cover songs, but Hank Williams Jr.’s “Country Boy Can Survive” has become such a staple for him at his live shows that he had to record it for his new album Honky Tonks and Country Songs.

“It’s one of my all-time favorite country songs by one of my all-time favorite country singers,” Nichols said. “I usually don’t make it a habit to cut and to cover iconic songs by iconic singers because you’re just asking for people to hate you.”

However, this time it was fitting. Nichols released his debut, a self-titled album, in 1996. Almost three decades later, he’s showing today’s country artists and fans that a country boy can survive. The song is track five of 11 on Honky Tonks and Country Songs, which is out now. Nichols opted for a best-song-wins mentality for the album. So, while he wrote plenty of songs for his album, he said other writers out-wrote him, so they made his album, and he didn’t.

Joe Nichols Was Out-Written By Other Songwriters on ‘Honky Tonks and Country Songs’

“I don’t think that’s a bummer as much as it is that we just found a bunch of good songs,” he said. “I  think a lot of artists sell themselves short if they only look at it through that lens, but nothing against anybody that looks at it like that. I just don’t want to do that.”

Nichols teamed with fellow Quartz Hill Records artist Annie Bosco for a duet on the album’s debut single, “Better Than You.” The passionate collaboration was a Top 5 most-added song on country radio for four consecutive weeks.

“I think she’s got a lot of power behind her voice,” Nichols said. “We blend well together. This is just purely written as a duet, and it’s got a lot of qualities that radio likes. It lends itself well to radio. And, radio has responded.”

Other songs on Nichols’ Honky Tonks and Country Songs include “Doin’ Life With You,” “Bottle It Up,” “Helpless in a Honky Tonk” and “Hard Fires.”

“Hopefully, having a big old hit is always good for getting eyeballs onto the whole project,” Nichols said of “Better Than You.”  “I think the quality of the outfit is good. There’s not a bad song in this album. Maybe I’ve been living with the music a little longer than everybody, so maybe I’m biased. But I think there are a lot of songs that sound kind of similar in a good way. So we can maintain the theme of the record. It’s cohesive and consistent.”

Nichols described the production as “kind of throwback to ’90s country,” which he noted resonated with country fans at the moment. He said his job was to “make people feel something” and that the recording industry leans too heavily on technology.

“I’m an old school guy trying to fit in a new school world,” he said. “I think Pro Tools makes us all good singers. I think at this point, the challenge isn’t whether or not we can all get tuned up and pocketed just right. The challenge is how do we keep it from sounding robotic? If our job is to make people feel, that shouldn’t be up to a computer. It should be up to us. Hopefully, we did a good job on this album of making music that speaks to people and makes them feel something — even if they don’t like it.  Hopefully, they really do like it, though.”