I had a completely different country song by a female artist lined up to talk about this morning, but instead I’m going to talk about this song that isn’t really new at all by any stretch of the imagination. Based on the date it was released on YouTube it’s actually almost exactly one year old. However I’m going to go with it for a couple reasons. First, I heard it on actual country radio for the first time yesterday, which makes it count as new to me. Second, the reason that was notable for me was because this is one of the songs I heard the songwriter Zach Kale sing at the Listening Room Cafe in my recent trip to Nashville.

I don’t want to actually say too much about the song “I Hope” by Gabby Barrett because part of the fun of hearing this song for the first time is not really knowing where it’s going. It’s a great country song that way. I don’t know of any other genre that is so good with lyrical turns as country music is. This was one of my favorite songs of the night, and I’m excited to have heard it on country radio and sung by a woman no less.