"Circles Around This Town" is a song by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Maren Morris Maren Larae Morris (born April 10, 1990) is an American singer-songwriter. While rooted in the Country music, country genre, her music also blends elements of Pop music, pop, R&B music, R&B, and Hip-Hop music, hip-hop. Born and raised in Arlingt ...

. It was written by Morris, along with her husband Ryan Hurd, Julia Michaels and

Jimmy Robbins James Michael Robbins (born September 3, 1989, in Raleigh, North Carolina) is a country music Award-winning American songwriter and producer. Biography In addition to having penned ten number-one singles, he won a CMA Triple Play Award in 2014 ...

. It was released on January 7, 2022, as the lead single from Morris' third studio album '' Humble Quest''. The song received positive reviews from critics, earning two nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and

Best Country Solo Performance The Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is design ...

Background and writing

Maren Morris had first reached her commercial breakthrough in 2016 with the single "

My Church "My Church" is the first single by American country music singer Maren Morris. It was released in January 2016 as the lead single from her first studio album, ''Hero'' (2016). Morris co-wrote and co-produced the song with busbee. The song won th ...

". The song helped her attain a recording contract and a major label album that spawned further country hits. She followed it with several more commercially-successful singles, along with major industry awards. Morris wrote "Circles Around This Town" in preparation for her next studio album. It was composed with Ryan Hurd and Julia Michaels during the fall 2020 during a "deeply uninspired" period, according to Morris. It was among her first times co-writing in person since the start of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. According to Morris, she had struggled writing material virtually due to the lack of places being open. The song's concept is based on Morris's journey to country success, describing her path of moving to

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

and signing a recording contract. "I hope that when listeners hear it, they can hear a bit of themselves in that story, even though it is mine," she told '' CMT''. The track was recorded with producer Greg Kurstin. "I needed to make this record to pull me out of the weird boredom, depression that I think every human being on this planet has had during the last couple of years," she explained of its recording process.

Critical reception

"Circles Around This Town" has received positive reviews from critics. Jon Freeman of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' praised its production: "'Circles Around This Town' moves along with the kind of ambling groove that’s been a big part of Morris' sound—unhurried and bolstered by a grunge-lite guitar riff." Billy Dukes highlighted the album's writing in his review: "Much like she did with her debut single, Morris takes us back to the front seat of her car for creative inspiration. It's as relatable now as it was five years ago." Jessica Nicholson by ''Billboard'' wrote that "the song embodies a crunchier, more rootsy vibe than other recent fare" finding similarities with "

" and " 80s Mercedes". Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky also finds Morris's search for earliest sonorities in the song, pointing out that "Morris moved away from the glossier style, ..taking influence from singer-songwriters like

Patty Griffin Patricia Jean Griffin (born March 16, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.Griffin, Patrici She is a vocalist and plays guitar and piano. She is known for her stripped-down songwriting style in the folk music genre. Her songs ha ...

and

Carole King Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at 1650 Broadway and later as a solo artist. Regarded as one ...

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Circles Around This Town" was directed by Harper Smith. It drew inspiration from the videos of 1990s music artists. According to Morris, she appreciated the aesthetic of the decade's videos. "I've always been so inspired by the industrial, blown out colors of music videos from the '90s, so irectorHarper Smith and I wanted the aesthetics of this video to reflect that grainy, devil-may-care attitude of all my females heroes from that era: Sheryl, Fiona, Alanis." The video features an appearance from

Reba McEntire Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955), or simply Reba, is an American country music singer and actress. Dubbed " the Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Since the 1970s, McEntire has placed over 100 single ...

who can be seen in a television advertisement. The video premiered the same day of the single's release.

Release and chart performance

"Circles Around This Town" was released as a single on January 7, 2022, via

Columbia Nashville Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the Amer ...

. Following its release the song was the most added single to country music radio in the first month of 2022. It also broke

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

's record for "most streams for a country song debut by a female artist", according to ''Music Row'' magazine. It also debuted at the number one spot on

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora (Greek: , derived from , ''pān'', i.e. "all" and , ''dōron'', i.e. "gift", thus "the all-endowed", "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hes ...

's country chart. It debuted in the top 30 of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

chart in January 2022.

Personnel

– vocals, composer, lyricist * Julia Michaels – background vocals, composer, lyricist * Jimmy Robbins – composer, lyricist, overdub engineer * Ryan Hurd – background vocals, composer, lyricist * Greg Kurstin – producer, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, electric guitar, percussion, recording engineer * Bennett Lewis – mandolin * Rich Hinman – steel guitar * Randy Merrill – mastering engineer * Serban Ghenea – mixing engineer * Julian Burg – recording engineer * Bryce Bordone – assistant engineer * Matt Tuggle – assistant engineer

Accolades

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Maren Morris 2022 singles 2022 songs Maren Morris songs Songs written by Ryan Hurd Songs written by Julia Michaels Songs written by Maren Morris Songs written by Jimmy Robbins Song recordings produced by Greg Kurstin Columbia Nashville Records singles Songs about country music Songs about Tennessee