'This is me': RaeLynn takes you to her hometown on new EP, 'Baytown'

Pop in your earbuds and head to “Baytown,” the waterside Texas city with a blazing soundtrack provided by hometown country singer RaeLynn. 

The Platinum-selling songwriter and “The Voice” alum invites listeners to her roots on a six-song EP, “Baytown,” named after her Gulf Coast stompin’ grounds and served via Round Here Records, the label launched by hitmakers Florida Georgia Line. 

With saddle-up-or-get-left-behind spirit that’s equally tender-hearted and fiercely fun, RaeLynn said this release comes with the confidence of an adult unapologetically declaring “this is me” to a place that helped raise her. 

“Never be ashamed of your hometown,” the 26-year-old singer told The Tennessean. “It doesn’t matter if it was a bad experience or a good experience. Your hometown is your hometown. It shapes you into being some version of yourself that you never would’ve been.” 

And RaeLynn returns musically to her hometown after eight years of “playing the game” in Music City, she said. 

Following her run on “The Voice” in 2012, she struck Platinum with 2014 single “God Made Girls” and earned critical praise with 2017 full-length debut, “Wildhorse,” only to decamp from each project’s label — Valory/Big Machine and Warner Music Nashville, respectively — shortly after release. 

She embraced a new musical home last year in Round Here, the label brainchild of Florida Georgia Line members Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley. At Round Here, RaeLynn said she found a place where she “can be happy inside” while penning and recording music.  

And “why not” be yourself, she said. After tangling with obstacles for airplay — terrestrial radio programmers continue to spin remarkably less women than men, as with each year in RaeLynn’s career — she asked herself: “What do I have to lose?” 

“No matter what, it’s gonna be hard,” RaeLynn said. “No matter what, there’s going to be a struggle there. If I’m being myself and I'm happy inside, that’s all that matters. I was making better music with that mindset (opposed to) going in like, ‘OK, I need to write a slow song today. OK, I need to write a song that country radio’s gonna love. OK, I need to write an up-tempo …” 

She continued, “I just wasn’t doing that any more. I was going in saying, ‘Let’s write whatever our heart desires today.’”

Plus, in Hubbard and Kelly, she found a cheerleader in one of the most successful Nashville acts of the last decade. 

“A lot of artists at times feel pressure from labels or management … to be certain ways or to service certain things,” Hubbard told The Tennessean. “We trusted her and her creativity and her talent to do the work and [it] really just reflect who she is.” 

Listeners hear the result in a six-song collection that blends RaeLynn’s idea of rowdy empowerment (“Keep Up”), judgement-free living (“Judgin’ To Jesus”), one-sided relationships (“Me About Me”) and kick-him-to-the-curb freedom (“Bra Off”). 

RaeLynn embraces the pop-leaning grooves she loved as a kid in Baytown, none more evident than on “Still Smokin’,” an ode to a fire felt years after saying “I do.” 

“I love the fact that it doesn't really sound like a love song but it is a love song.” RaeLynn said. “I think it’s really cool to have a song that sounds like that and it not be about having a good time but about the person you love.” 

And each song reflects a little bit of how the hometown inspired who she grew to be. 

What else should someone expect? “Baytown” is Raelynn’s turf, after all. 

“One thing I just loved about naming my EP is it’s like honoring the place that created such a fire in me to want to be a good person and to write great music and to follow my dreams.”