Clay Walker Returns With New Single, ‘Right Now’

It's been three years since we've heard new music from Clay Walker, but the country singer hasn't been sitting around idle.

"I was in turmoil with a record label, and it just took time to navigate through the label procedure," he reveals to Taste of Country. "Ending that, and then starting the recording process, which, I've never seen it take less than a year from the time you start looking for songs to the time you get finished recording."

It actually took Walker two years to write and find the songs for his upcoming new album, for which there is no set release date. He's just released the first taste of that project, "Right Now," exclusively via SiriusXM The Highway — On the Horizon, and is looking at his options to decide where to release the new album.

"Right Now" is a change of pace for Walker, focusing on the bluesier side of his voice. He wrote the song with Wade Kirby and Shane Minor. "Shane Minor is a writer that I trust implicitly," he says. "He's the one who suggested Wade, and I had never written with Wade. But Shane knows that I'm a very soulful singer, and we really wanted to write something that showcased that bluesy side of my talent, and when we got in a room with Wade and started discussing what kind of song we were looking for, I pointed to 'This Women and This Man,' and Wade said, 'Yeah man, that's probably my favorite cut of yours.'"

Once they'd established a groove, Walker was looking for what he calls "a call to action. What's going to get people involved in a song? That urgent love, the feeling of, 'I've got to have you right now.' And I really credit Wade with the title. He's very much in tune — and so is Shane — with what style of writing is going on."

The singer-songwriter says it's been beneficial to be able to sit back and watch the dramatic changes in the country format over the last three years, and he's confident that with the help of producer Aaron Pearce — who's worked with Willie Nelson, Cassadee Pope and Celine Dion, among others — he's created a sound that is both classic and contemporary. "Right Now" features sweeping string arrangements that bring a touch of class to the track, and could help bring it to a wider audience as well.

"We don't really do that in country music to that degree, and I was hoping that he would bring in some magical strings .. and he did. He absolutely knocked it out of the park," Walker says of Pearce. "I knew it was a special track, but the things that he added — that string arrangement, really great reverb and little signature licks inside the track — it laid in there so perfectly, and the mix is absolutely phenomenal. It sounds very different, and it sounds expensive."

Walker is hoping to build support for "Right Now" at SiriusXM before deciding on a label deal and a run at radio. He's preparing to shoot a video for the song, but for now he's asking fans to support the song in a grassroots manner.

"There's two things a fan can do," he says. "One is, show us support by buying it. There's nothing like that kind of commitment. And then they can also talk about it and like it on Facebook and Twitter, and share it. That seems to be the best way to get traction."

"Right Now" is available to download at iTunes and Amazon. For more information on Walker's upcoming album and tour dates, visit his official website, or follow him on Facebook and Twitter for a chance to participate in special contests and giveaways he is offering in support of the new single.

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