Carly Pearce Flies High with New Album: 'So Much More to My Story Than Heartbreak' (Exclusive)
'Hummingbird' gives the 'Queen of Feels' a soaring opportunity to express a spectrum of emotions: 'It's my healing journey'
Allister Ann
Carly PearceCarly Pearce released her new album hummingbird on Friday
"This is definitely the proudest I’ve been of an album, hands down," she says
The country star is currently on the road with Tim McGraw
Carly Pearce has only herself to blame. After all, she was the one who created the tough act that she had to follow after her 2021 blockbuster album, 29.
“For sure — I think that’s why it took me so long,” Pearce admits to PEOPLE. “I was very scared to follow it up.”
She’s 34 now, five years removed from the fateful age that named the album, which turned her real-life divorce from fellow artist Michael Ray into a musical triumph. But those years have proved essential, giving her the time to gain the growth, healing — and increasingly confident style — that now flourishes on her much-anticipated fourth album, hummingbird, out on Friday.
“This is definitely the proudest I’ve been of an album, hands down,” she says. “And I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to feel that way because of what 29 was, but I do.”
Pearce says she had much to work through to get her to this point — beginning with the fact that she wrote the songs of 29 mostly as self-therapy, not initially anticipating their release. Instead, the album turned into, as she says, “the gift that kept on giving,” creating a career momentum that delivered two No. 1 singles, membership in the Grand Ole Opry, ACM and CMA female vocalist of the year, a Grammy and coveted slots on Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw tours.
What could easily be overlooked — by just about everyone but Pearce — was that the artistic themes of 29 were still affecting her in a very real way. “Taking the success out of it,” she says, “I underestimated the human experience I was having after loss of that sort. I just put out an album that was wildly successful and I thought, oh, I’m fine, I’m fine. And then, you know, it starts to die down, and you realize, oh wait, I haven’t scratched the surface of what it means to heal.”
That realization kept Pearce strongly resistant to trying to write a “happy” album. Besides that, life wasn’t exactly giving her happiness. A two-year relationship with Nashville real estate businessman Riley King ended in 2023, a split that Pearce describes now as “an extremely awful heartbreak.” Still, as she considers her aspirations for her music, she says, “that’s not the hill I want to die on, because there’s so much more to my story than just heartbreak.”
Indeed, Pearce has leaned into a full range of emotions on hummingbird — well earning what her pal, Russell Dickerson’s wife, Kailey, calls her: “the Queen of Feels.” Pearce likes the title.
“I want to be known as somebody who writes music that makes people feel something,” she says.
She’s now given her listeners ample opportunity, with 14 evocative tracks — every one co-written by Pearce — that tackle all manner of love and life matters. Both their canny lyrics and catchy melodies help Pearce speak with a new-found authority.
It’s been hard-earned, she says: “With therapy and lots of trials and errors, it’s taken me all of the last three years to get to a place where I look at love and be optimistic about it, because I lived in fear and realized I hadn’t really dealt with my own demons around what happened to me.”
That fear is fully reflected in “trust issues.” It’s the only love song on the album, and Pearce identifies it as the earliest one she wrote (with Nicolle Galyon and Jordan Reynolds). Composed during her relationship with King, it simmers with uncertainty: “Got me turning one night into maybe the rest of my life / Haven’t even said I love you but I’m thinking that I want to.”
Courtesy of Big Machine Records
Carly Pearce's hummingbirdTitle song “hummingbird” — among the last written — offers perhaps the best view of Pearce at her current state, both hopeful and grounded, and she delivers the bluegrass-infused music with elegant command. The exquisite fiddle outro, performed by five-time CMA musician of the year Jenee Fleenor, signals a life taking flight, heading out into horizons unknown.
“Hummingbirds are a sign that the healing process can begin, and that good luck is on the way,” Pearce explains. “To me, that’s kind of what this whole album was. It was my healing journey, and it was very messy at times. Even in the songs that are sad, there’s this underlying realization that there’s a reason you’re hurting, and it’s for something bigger. I don’t think that was where I was during 29.”
Pearce also shows she doesn’t take herself so seriously that she can’t find the humor in her trail of tears. The album kicks off with the tart sparkle of “country music made me do it,” and its lyrics reflect Pearce’s own amusement as she tries to figure out where her life ends and her music begins: “I wear my hair a little too high / and my heartbreak on my sleeve / I might be a little crazy / but you can’t blame me / Country music made me do it.” For a time, Pearce thought the song would be the title track.
“I feel like I’m a walking country song,” she says with a laugh. “I’m like, wow, all these lines really are real. But at some point, you have to just own your story. And I feel like that song is me owning my story, maybe for the first time.”
Another standout track, “fault line” — a riotous throwback to the George-and-Tammy era —delivers more humor, but it, too, comes with real-life insight. The message is clear that both partners have taken a role in this crumbling relationship: “I just look at you wrong / You say I’m just like my mom / Point your finger and it’s on / and now your clothes are all over the lawn.” The album’s lead-off single, “We Don’t Fight Any More,” a top 15 duet with Chris Stapleton, delivers the same hard truth in a much more sobering fashion.
Related: What Chris Stapleton Brought to Their Duet, Says Carly Pearce, 'Blew My Mind' (Exclusive)
No doubt the album shows Pearce is both older and wiser than the artist who created 29, and she’s embracing the lessons that have delivered this new chapter. Life, she says, is good now, but her goal is far more about experiencing its fullness than having any happily-ever-afters. As for love? Her understanding of it, she says, “gets healthier every day.” For the past year, she’s been in a relationship with her band’s drummer, BC Taylor, though she’s mum on any details.
“Everything's good,” she confirms. “But now that I've had a failed marriage and a failed relationship in the spotlight, I have learned we keep this one very quiet.”
Pearce says she wants “love and marriage and whatever ‘family’ looks like for me,” but she affirms that her life’s passion is her career. “I am really OK if children do not happen for me, meaning this is what I’ve wanted more,” she says. “My career is what I dreamt of.”
And after so much success, what does she want now from her career?
“More of the same,” Pearce says, “because I just want to continue to build off what I’ve started to build. I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface. And yes, my awards shelf is very nice, but there’s so much more to do. I want to just continue to make sure that I’m pushing myself. I just want to continue to be true to myself and continue to elevate.”
She has just as much clarity about her purpose as an artist. “I want to show people there’s light after darkness,” she says, “and that you don’t have to have it all figured out to feel happy. I hope that’s what people think of when they think of me in this season … Wow, she came out on the other side better.”
Pearce is currently out on tour with McGraw, and she is planning headlining touring in the fall and spring, including already announced dates in the UK and Europe in 2025.
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