‘Catch of the Day’ – Maren Morris – “I Could Use A Love Song” [AUDIO]

Today we turn our focus to an artist that you probably hadn't heard of a year ago, but who, in just that one year has had a two top-10 singles, a gold certified album, been a part of one of the biggest tours of 2016 and was named the winner of both the 2016 CMA Best New Artist Award and the 2017 ACM Best New Female Artist of the Year. But, for this artist, who was reject by both American Idol and The Voice, the biggest event may have been having a day in her behalf in her home town of Arlington, TX.

2016 was definitely a year of coming out for Maren Morris. She started performing at the age of 12 in and around her home town of Arlington, TX. By age 15 she recorded her first album, Walk On, on the VERY independent Mozzi Blozzi label, which became a hit on the Texas circuit on which she began touring. She followed it up just two years later in 2007 with All That It Takes, which received a good amount of recognition on the Texas music charts, and by age 17, Morris was ready for a bigger challenge.

In 2010, Morris, now 20 years old headed to Nashville, where she immediately began to focus on songwriting. She began pairing off with some of the top young songwriters in Nashville, such as Kacey Musgraves, Lucie Silvas and the Brothers Osborne, and the group formed a tight knit writers community in Nashville. Her third album for the Mozzi Blozzi label, like the other two, failed to gain Morris commercial recognition, but it did put her on Nashville's radar. During this time she had songs recorded by the Osbornes, Kelly Clarkson and Tim McGraw, which further drew the attention of Columbia Records Nashville.

It wasn't until 2015 that Columbia signed Morris, but once they did, they rushed her into the studio to record the tracks for her self-titled debut EP, which was released in November. The debut single, "My Church" began to pick-up traction on satellite radio almost immediately, being named to Sirius/XM The Highway's year-end top-30. Traditional radio was more laid back on the newcomer, but by the end of January of 2016 it quickly became one of the most added singles in radio. The song would eventually peak at #5 on the country charts and be certified platinum.

June saw the release of Morris' major label debut album, Hero, featuring her second single "80's Mercedes". Following the lead of the first single, it made the top-10, peaking earlier this month. Morris spent the later half of 2016 supporting Dierks Bentley on his Black tour, and is now on the road headlining her own tour in support of Hero. The third single from the album is in our spotlight today. Brought to you by All-American Super Car Wash, Maren Morris and "I Could Use A Love Song" is today's Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.