This Week’s Backstage Country Host: Chris Lane

Clear your schedule and turn on the radio. Backstage Country just got a whole lot more charming. Chris Lane is stepping behind the mic as this week’s guest host alongside Elaina Smith from June 23 to 27, and trust us, you won’t want to miss a minute. 

Smith asked Lane about his duet with Abby Anderson and how the song is five years old. Lane revealed that some of the songs in his latest album, Shade Tree, like the title track, he written some time ago. He admitted it was his wife, Lauren, who stumbled across some old demos he had completely forgotten about: “If it had not been for my wife, at that time I was writing so many songs. She found this song in a demos folder of mine. She was like, ‘What is this song?’” 

He added, “I totally forgot about it because I just wrote so many songs at that time. I remember liking it and loving it, the day we wrote it, but sometimes when it falls into a folder, it's easy to forget because you write another song that you're excited about, and then you start forgetting about all these other great songs that you've already written. So yeah, it was really her. She was like, ‘What is this song? I love this song. This might be one of my favorite songs I've ever heard from you.’ I'm like, ‘Wait, what?’ I'm not expecting that at all. So, then I re-listened to it and I'm like, ‘Yeah, there is something great about this song.’” 

Smith asked Lane about his process in creating the album since with Shade Tree, it seems Lane leaned full-tilt into his country roots: “The more I thought about it, and the songs that I was writing at the time kind of lent themselves toward this. But I think it's because when I'm warming up for a show, or when I've driving around in my truck, I've listened to all those old Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban songs that I loved.” 

He added, “Even all the 90s stuff that I love, that I listened to before the shows, that mid to late 90s, early 2000s was just a vibe. Incredible music came out of that time for country music. Because of that, and because of my love for those kinds of sounds, like the banjo, the fiddles, the Dan Huff-sounding electric guitars, like all those cool riffs, made me want to work with him and to have him put his touch on this record.” 

Follow Lane on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok to stay updated on tour dates, new music, and maybe even some more forgotten songs hiding in his voice memos.