Hear Ryan Hurd’s Role-Flipping New Song ‘City Girl’
Earlier this year, Ryan Hurd’s debut single, “We Do Us,” reveled in the simple joys of being in a relationship with that special someone. But with his latest release, the churning, slow-burning “City Girl,” the Kalamazoo, Michigan, native displays a vulnerability that’s bracingly honest – a very different “Different for Girls” when it comes to casual hook-ups.
“City girl, you’re gonna love me and leave me, ’cause it ain’t gonna mean what it means to me to you,” Hurd sings in the chorus, a surprising reversal of traditional relationship politics. Wondering if he’s been led on and if playing it cool is wise, even though he’s obviously in way too deep, the singer’s assertion that he may be “just another Friday night, another someone to call” sees him confessing that walking the fine line between cool and confident is setting him up for heartbreaking self-defeat.
Hurd’s songs have been cut by Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton and Ashley Monroe and Rascal Flatts, among others, and earlier this year his debut EP, Panorama, earned him a spot among Rolling Stone Country‘s 10 Artists You Need to Know.
Of the four-song sampler, Hurd tells Rolling Stone Country, “The common thread is my voice through the whole thing. Everything has weight, but not necessarily the same thing over and over. People are given the freedom to make their own space these days. Everyone is forging their own identity, and it seems like Nashville is really excited about it.”
Hurd is currently on tour with Chase Rice and Lacy Cavalier, with upcoming shows in Ohio, Iowa and South Dakota.