First Published June 2022
AYII – THE SECOND GO-ROUND
As singer/songwriter duo AMERICAN YOUNG, Kristy Osmunson and Jon Stone have headlined shows in well over twenty different countries. The pair released their sophomore album – AYII – via MCC/Curb Records in November 2021. Featuring their latest single Country Girls, which was co-written and co-produced with label-mate, Lee Brice, the AYII long-player was crafted in the midst of personal transition and growth for both songwriters, with the result that either or both Osmunson and Stone are credited as co-writers on every track, save for their version of a John Anderson classic.
Kristy and Jon both found success in Nashville before joining forces in 2013. Prior to launching American Young, Osmunson – a fiddle player and former member of vocal group Bomshel – had songs recorded by Joey + Rory, among others; while Stone was an in-demand producer who had cuts recorded by Rascal Flatts , Kenny Chesney , Blake Shelton , and more. Following the release of their self-titled debut for Curb Records, featuring the singles Love Is War and Wasn’t Gonna Drink Tonight, American Young was nominated three years in a row for a British Country Music Association Touring Award, which they won in 2019 solidifying their place as global ambassadors of country music. The duo can also be seen on the first three seasons of the hit E! reality series Very Cavallari.
When we spoke, the pair were soon to be on their way back to the UK for some big dates, including a performance at the Buckles and Boots Festival on June 2nd…
“Yeah, man, we’re lookin’ forward to ’em, we got to get another award too because on our way back last time we broke our award! And they only gave us one! [Laughs]. That was cold [laughs].”
I wondered if there might have been a little champagne involved in that tragedy?
“[Laughs], No, it was just in luggage, I didn’t pack it right…apparently! [Laughs].”
JON
“But yeah, we’re excited about it, we’ve got a lot of friends over there. It’s funny, cos’ our drummer, Chris, is actually here – he’s on the couch here behind us – he’s a Brit!”
KRISTY to CHRIS
“Chris, where exactly is your home over there?”
In the background, Chris waves at the laptop and responds to Kristy by confirming his hometown as Peterborough, prompting both Kristy and Jon to repeat it in their best British accents!
JON
“Chris slept on my couch in a full suit last night! That’s the American way [laughs].”
KRISTY
“This is really exciting for us, to be coming back over there. Our music over there is honestly a bit more understood than even in the US right now, which is interesting. So we’re doing an album release party in London. We actually got some vinyls pressed up, and that’s the first time I’ve ever been part of having a vinyl, so that’s exciting too.”
JON
“This is the record right here [holds up a vinyl copy of AYII].”
KRISTY
“So for anybody who likes to listen to actual albums…”
JON
“I thought you were gonna say music! I was like, ‘That’s some egotistical sh*t! [laughs]. Anybody who actually likes music, we got ya, right here! [Laughs].”
KRISTY
[Laughs] Yeah, so that’s exciting. And this was a really fun process. And we got to record a music video at a honky tonk, and we also did one here where the vinyl lab is, that was cool and really fun to be a part of!”
I was one of the band’s many fans on this side of the world eagerly waiting for their AYII album to finally drop, and when it did, it didn’t disappoint! Jon and Kristy’s new single – Country Girls (co-written and co-produced by Lee Brice) – is, I think it’s fair to say, kind of a different song for American Young. Before getting onto the video that accompanies the single, the one filmed at a honky tonk as Kristy had just referenced, I asked the pair to tell me about the song itself and how it came to be…
KRISTY
“So, once upon a time, back in the 90s, there was a song that went, [sings], ‘Tonight will be the night that I will fall for you…’ Do you remember that song?”
JON
“It’s [a band called] Secondhand Serenade, a guy called John Vesely …”
KRISTY
“They were a huge emo band, maybe it was like the 2000s? Honestly, I think that dude launched MySpace!”
JON
“Yeah, he was a MySpace artist, that’s how he blew up. So me, him, and Lee [Brice] got together one day, and I just had this groove on the bass and that’s how the whole thing started! Then Lee started goin’, ‘Livin’, workin’, drinkin’, shine sippin’/ Ain’t much to figure out / Quick-thinkin’, not blinkin’ /Knock you out…’, and I was thinkin’ whoa, that’s fun! [Laughs]. So we got through it, wrote a chorus, and Kristy was like, ‘I want to write a rap!’ I said, ‘Kristy, that’s crazy talk!’ And then she did! And I was like, ‘Well…that sounds awesome!’
KRISTY
“There ya go!”
JON
“And then we wrote this fiddle-line, and it all came alive in the studio. And it’s so much fun! It is different for us, but the ‘Love Is War’, and that real Americana sound that we cut our teeth on, is absolutely a part of our sound still, and will always be. But with everybody, there’s an evolution to it [the band’s sound]. We’re at the point in our lives, I think, where we’re wantin’ to have fun, ya know. Do groovy stuff! I just want to write some groovy stuff [laughs]. Stuff that’s fun ‘live’, have people dance, have a good time. This is not crazy, heavy, overly-thought country music, which I love…”
KRISTY
“And seeing as how our world is at war, we probably don’t want to talk about it much, we want to sing. This is dancing music! [Laughs]. I don’t want to hear about any more bad stuff.”
JON
“Yeah, so it’s just fun, ya know. I think ‘Country Girls’ will propel us into our next record, which is gonna be really fun. There’s gonna be splashes of that tight harmony thing that we do, we just love doin’ that. It comes so naturally. That’s always gonna be a part of our sound.”
KRISTY
“And it was really fun to include John Vesely in the country music area. I was a huge fan of his back when I first started music, ya know, that was like the sad break-up music of my youth!”
JON
“It was like super-emo, cry… [laughs].”
KRISTY
“Yes! And then his wife is [now] one of my dear friends, and she’s about to have a baby.”
JON
“Chris is our baby! [Laughs]. We’re blocking the doorway so that he can’t leave! [Laughs].”
KRISTY
“We’re stealing one of yours [laughs].”
I gently pointed out that I was actually Irish, but reassured Kristy that I knew what she meant and we’d be happy to offer Chris refuge, if need be!
JON
“Well, he kind of is [one of yours], cos’ he’s not an American citizen [laughs]. He’s on a visa, but we may keep him [laughs].”
KRISTY
“I’m introducing him to all of my friends, so hopefully he’ll find a wife over here!”
JON
“She’s tryin’ to make everybody have babies!”
KRISTY
[Laughs] I just had my second and it’s my favourite thing in life! I highly recommend it, it’s the best part about life. Go get yourself a couple! [Laughs].”
JON
“I’m sorry, Anthony!”
KRISTY
“[Laughs]”
The video for Country Girls is a real tip-of-the-hat to 90s country, in the most good-humoured and good-natured way. If the video was anything as much fun to make as it is to watch, then I had probably already answered my next question! But the fun element aside – and possibly the retro vibe around 90s country at the moment – what inspired Kristy and Jon to take the video in this direction?
JON
“Well, it’s crazy, but I had a dream about this. You remember that, Kristy? I was forcing this down everybody’s throat for soooo long!”
KRISTY
“Yep, Jon had a vision on this one!”
JON
“I was like, I need to have a mullet, like an Alan Jackson type mullet! And they fought me on it. And I really wanted a moustache!”
KRISTY
“We hired the girl who does Ronnie Dunn’s hair, Ronnie from Brooks & Dunn! [Laughs].”
JON
“Yeah! And it just kind of came together the way it did. We met in the middle a lot. It would have been a little more whacky in my brain! But I’ll tell ya…I was sweating like a stuck hog!”
KRISTY
“It was HOT!”
JON
“Cos’ I was movin’ so much! And I’m old! [Laughs].”
KRISTY
“There were these amazing TikTok dancers that they got for this video, and they were helping us out. And it was so crazy, because all of a sudden we were like halfway through the day, and we sit down for lunch and I start talking to these kids, and all of a sudden I’m realising that these are the same people I watch on TikTok! And they were actually in OUR video. I didn’t even realise it. People in real-life are so different than when they’re on a little, tiny screen, right? Anyway, it was incredible the amount of talent that lended their talent for this video. I mean, there were dancers from Florida, LA, from everywhere! They were all helping us and having a great time. And the girl who choreographed the dance, she’s been amazing because I feel like line-dancing is such a pivotal part of country music…”
JON
“It’s a very linear thing… [laughs]”
KRISTY
“[Laughs] But it is! [Laughs]. It’s a very pivotal part of this industry, and for… God, I don’t know how many years… it’s been out of it! We haven’t had line-dancing…”
JON
“Oh yeah, they have. All over the country except for Nashville.”
KRISTY
“Yeah! It’s crazy.”
JON
“In England, and the UK, it’s probably a new thing over there, huh?”
Actually, it had been huge here, in Ireland, that is – and to the best of my knowledge, it had been in the UK too – for a long time, especially back in the 90s and early 2000s. But it’s something that kind of fell away…
KRISTY
“It’s fun to see that, like, New Zealand has their version of it, and all over the world people have their ways of doing things. I think, down here, it’s really interesting that in the fraternities they have different line-dances and cultural ideas that they’ll do. Hillbillies and rednecks up here in Nashville, we always enjoy adding our spin to it. So ‘Country Girls’ was our statement on that [laughs].”
JON
“And you know what? The record sounded so good. John Vesely, and all of us…”
KRISTY
“Lee [Brice] is such a freakin’ genuis! And John, both of ’em! It was great to be a student, literally, it was great.”
JON
“The record sounds great, just the sonic sound of the record, there was some special things that I tried on that record. Like, I’m playin’ bass on ‘Country Girls’…”
KRISTY
“He’s my favourite bass player in this town!”
JON
“That’s not true. She doesn’t know any bass players! [Laughs].”
Jon and Kristy are co-writers on every track of AYII, except for their version of John Anderson‘s beautiful 1992 song, Seminole Wind. With both Jon and Kristy being such cool writers themselves, and given that there are just so many gorgeous songs out there from other writers, past and present, I was curious to know what had earned Seminole Wind its spot on this collection…
JON
“Well, I mean it still has the same relevance.”
Seminole Wind has been described as having naturalist overtones, lamenting the destruction of the environment by humans for economic gain.
Deborah Evans Price, reviewing the song for Billboard magazine after its release in 1992, called it a “vividly imagistic song”, also saying that it “conveys feelings of urgency and great loss without being self-righteous or preachy.”
KRISTY
“Going into Disney World, for me – as a human – driving into Disney World…”
JON
“As opposed to a cat driving into Disney World…!”
KRISTY
“[Laughs] But they’ve taken all this marsh-land and just turned it into pavement! You know what I mean? Parking lots. It’s really crazy to see the environmental impact that we’re having as America, as we’re developing. I think we need to be environmentally conscious.”
JON
“And we just like the song, ya know. We love the song. That’s really the short answer. A friend of ours said, ‘You should really do this’, and we were like, ‘Wow! That’s a great idea! Then we worked it out. And that fiddle part, and I had to work out that piano part on the guitar, and it just happened to sound good!”
KRISTY
“And we got to record it in the original space that John Anderson recorded it, which was really cool. We were listening to the stories of the people who had worked on the original record, it was fun.”
JON
“And it’s funny, because on every record…well, on all our TWO records [laughs]… it seems like we enjoy tipping our hat to country music by doin’ a cover, ya know. And it’s brought us an audience too.”
KRISTY
“And I will say, I didn’t know ‘Piece of My Heart’ until Faith Hill did it!”
JON
“Oh my God! Well that’s just embarrassing! [Laughs].”
KRISTY
“But it’s a generational thing. I was born before the internet, you guys! [Laughs].”
With our allotted time just about to run out – and trust me, I could have stayed talking to these guys all day long, they’re so cool and so lovely – I wondered if they each had a favourite song on the new album?
JON
“Ya know, that changes. I love ‘Country Girls’, but I’d say ‘Let You Down’.
KRISTY
“Yeah, ‘Let You Down’ is my favourite.”
JON
“It’s just one I keep goin’ back to. That chorus just slams, and Victor Wooten playin’ bass…it’s crazy!”
KRISTY
“Halleujah!”
~ AYII, the brand new album from AMERICAN YOUNG, is OUT NOW.
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