On ‘Enlisted,’ country star Craig Morgan gets a little help from his friends like Blake Shelton

LOS ANGELES – In July, country track star Craig Morgan reenlisted within the Army Reserves at the ancient Grand Ole Opry degree. At age 59, the method required a waiver and an in depth bodily check. It additionally impressed the identify for the brand new EP he were running on: “Enlisted,” out Friday.

The six-song assortment contains two new tracks and a few reimaginations of his hits, along A-list and up-and-coming collaborators like Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins, Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson, and Jelly Roll.

The Opry holds explicit which means to Morgan — it is not best a degree he is frequented, however it’s also the place he spent his remaining night time with his 19-year-old son Jerry, who drowned in 2016. “After what happened, happened, everything takes on a new meaning,” he says. “Us not having his physical presence, (he) was missed.”

Previously, Morgan served 17 years within the Army and Army Reserve with the one hundred and first and 82nd Airborne Divisions as an E-6 Staff Sergeant and Fire Support Specialist. He says he is at all times regretted no longer hitting the twenty years of carrier mark, and reenlisting permits him the chance.

Morgan hopes he conjures up others to do the similar. “Recruiting is the worst that it’s been since the inception of the military,” he says. “I’m marrying each my worlds, my international of track and my international of army.”

As for the EP — Morgan says he wasn’t crazy about the idea of re-recording some of his biggest hits. His manager wanted him to re-do “Redneck Yacht Club,” and he wasn’t sure — until he performed another hit, “Almost Home,” at the Opry in 2022 with up-and-comer Jelly Roll and was confronted with his songs’ impact.

Jelly Roll was almost moved to tears when he described how the song gave him hope. “I realized that ‘Almost Home,’ what it did for Jelly impacted a whole new audience as well as my old audience,” Morgan says. “And I assumed there could be a position to revisit those songs.”

“Enlisted” features a new recording of the track with Jelly Roll (“He epitomizes what love is,” Morgan says of the rapper-turned-country singer. “No barriers, no walls,”). Country Music Awards favorite Wilson joins Morgan on “International Harvester.”

“Lainey Wilson had listened to it growing up with her dad, riding around in the truck on the farm,” he says.

“Redneck Yacht Club,” too, gets a facelift, now with Jimmy Buffet -style metal drums and contributions from Shelton, who was once featured within the unique 2005 track video.

“I absolutely love him. He’s my favorite idiot,” Morgan says of his longtime buddy. “I called him up and said, ‘I’m re-cutting some songs. I want you on ‘Redneck Yacht Club,’ because, I don’t know if you remember, but your Mullet-ed self was in the video.’” Shelton, after all, mentioned sure.

As for the 2 new tracks, Morgan partnered with Combs on “Raise the Bar,” and Adkins on “That Ain’t Gonna Be Me.”

“Enlisted” reworks Morgan’s biggest hits and celebrates the current country musician generation. “There’s something to be said about singing a song that the majority of our populace wants to be able to relate to, or can relate to,” he says. “And that’s what nice country does; I consider.”