Clint Black Performs ‘A Better Man’ Live at Blackbird Studio [Exclusive Premiere]

Clint Black has just released a new album, and he performed live in the studio at Nashville's celebrated Blackbird Studio to help promote the project in a clip that Taste of Country readers are seeing first.

Black has just released On Purpose, his first full-length album of songs in 10 years, and he dropped by Blackbird Studio with his acoustic guitar in hand to deliver solo versions of some of the songs from that album, as well as some Clint Black classics. In the clip above, Black performs "A Better Man," which helped launch his career when it reached No. 1 as the lead single from his debut album, Killin' Time, in 1989.

Country Now shot the video as part of its Hear & Now: Live at Blackbird Studio program, which presents exclusive intimate performances from some of the biggest names in country music. Owned by John and Martina McBride, Blackbird is one of the hottest studio spaces in Music City, home to recording projects from all across the musical spectrum.

Black says the title of On Purpose reflects how carefully he chose not only the songs, but the circumstances of the project.

"I didn’t arrive here by accident," he tells Taste of Country. "I haven’t released music in a long time, and part of that was because I went through the process of meeting with major record labels that wanted to offer me a deal. I kinda let that waste a lot of my time, only to find out in the end that what they really wanted was to find me a song they thought was a hit, and have me go sing it. And whenever I realized that, I would walk away from the deal."

In the end, Black recorded and produced the new tracks in his own studio, and released the project via a deal with Thirty Tigers, giving him maximum artistic control.

"So those two words really spoke to me in light of all that. On Purpose. I didn’t get here by accident, and I chose to do this this way for a reason, and this is what I’m supposed to be doing," he says. "Therefore, this is me on purpose."

Backstage at the 2015 ACM Awards With Clint Black