''Remember Her Name'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

artist

Mickey Guyton Mickey Guyton (; born Candace Mycale Guyton; June 17, 1983) is an American country music artist. Raised in Texas, Guyton was exposed to various types of music at a young age, and her material subsequently incorporates elements of contemporary cou ...

. It was released on September 24, 2021, via

Capitol Records Nashville Capitol Records Nashville is a major United States-based record label located in Nashville, Tennessee operating as part of the Universal Music Group Nashville. From 1991 to 1995, Capitol Nashville was known as Liberty Records, before returning ...

. A follow-up release to her

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

, ''

Bridges A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whic ...

'' (2020), the album includes the singles " What Are You Gonna Tell Her?", "

Black Like Me ''Black Like Me'', first published in 1961, is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin recounting his journey in the Deep South of the United States, at a time when African-Americans lived under racial segregation. Griffin was a nat ...

" and a re-recorded version of her 2015 single, " Better Than You Left Me". The project centers around her personal and professional setbacks over the course of several years. Lyrical themes highlight Guyton's insecurities, anxieties while on her musical journey. The project received generally a favorable response from critics as well.

Background

Mickey Guyton had been signed to Capitol Records Nashville in 2011. She later released several

extended plays An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

(EPs) until her 2015 debut single " Better Than You Left Me". Although reaching the top 40, the single did not create enough momentum to spawn a full-length album release. Guyton had also reached a personal and professional crossroads that prompted her to change her outlook on music. She started writing songs with a small group of people and wrote songs that felt more personal to her. "A lot of these songs were just kind of therapy for me. I never wrote these thinking that they were ever going to be heard," she told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. ''Remember Her Name'' was crafted from these writing sessions. She titled the album in tribute to

Breonna Taylor Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment on March 13, 2020, when at least seven police officers forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing op ...

, a black resident of

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

who was shot and killed by local police enforcement. "The frustration that I've felt as an African-American has been a part of my process for a while. So the song, and album, are dedicated to reonna Taylorand giving her the justice that she deserves," she told ''

Country Music Television Country Music Television (CMT) is an American pay TV network owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched on March 5, 1983, as Country Music Television, CMT was the first nationally available channel devoted to coun ...

''.

Content

''Remember Her Name'' features production credits from Nathan Chapman, David Kalmusky, Karen Kosowski,

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 ...

, Johnny Simmen, Andy Skib, Gavin Slate and Forest Whitehead. The disc's 16 tracks center around Guyton's "self-discovery" and "re-discovery" in the music world.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

described the track "All American" as a song that embraces "her heritage as well as inclusion". The fourth track "Love My Hair" came from Guyton's insecurities about her black hair. In a promotional statement from

UMG Nashville Universal Music Group Nashville is Universal Music Group's country music subsidiary. Some of the labels in this group include MCA Nashville Records, Mercury Nashville Records, Lost Highway Records, Capitol Records Nashville and EMI Records Nashv ...

, Guyton stated that the title track is "a song for anyone who has ever felt less than, forgotten or up against impossible obstacles." The eighth track, "Do You Really Wanna Know", is based on Guyton's experiences with going to therapy and taking control of an alcohol problem. In addition, the track "Words" was derived from a comment Guyton read online pertaining to her race. Carl Wilson of ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'' magazine described "Indigo" as "another eponym to bear in mind, an alias that might encompass Guyton more fully." Other songs on the project are dedicated to Guyton's husband who provided an emotional support to her during difficult times. These tracks include "Higher", "Lay It on Me" and "Dancing in the Living Room". She also covers Beyonce's pop single "

If I Were a Boy "If I Were a Boy" is a song written by BC Jean and Toby Gad and originally performed by Jean in 2008. The song gained international attention the same year in a version by the American singer Beyoncé, from her third studio album '' I Am... Sa ...

". Other track were originally included on Guyton's 2020 extended play, ''

''. This includes "Rosé", that Guyton described as a "low-key protest song for women" about how women should have their song about drinking. Also from ''Bridges'' is the song "What Are You Gonna Tell Her?", which ''The New York Times'' described as "a bracing ballad about the limitations society places on young women." A third song from the EP is "Black Like Me". The song was written in 2019 and was originally composed as a way to describe her experiences as a black woman in America. It has since received attention since its original release as a song in 2020. The album also include a re-recorded version of "Better Than You Left Me", Guyton's debut single, which was first released in 2015 and first included on her eponymous extended play.

Critical reception

''Remember Her Name'' was met with generally favorable reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 79, based on 6 reviews. Rating it 3.5 out of 5 stars,

wrote that "Guyton's specific experiences of being a Black woman in country music are a distinctly American experience, and those struggles inform the heartbreaking 'What Are You Gonna Tell Her' and rousing title track. A good portion of the record is devoted to lighter songs of love, dancing, and drinking -- the topics that are country music's bread and butter -- and they showcase Guyton's versatility as a singer". He concluded that "If the bombast and ballads flatten the production of Remember Her Name somewhat, it nevertheless feels genuine, not calculated. Guyton is broadening and expanding the genre-bending sounds of 1990s country-pop". Jon Caramanica of ''The New York Times'' called the album "an astute survey of ambitious country music by a singer-songwriter who’s been carefully watching from the sidelines, deciding what parts worked best for her, and what needed to be tinkered with." ''

'' highlighted how the album is essentially a "protest record": "On ''Remember Her Name'', Mickey Guyton lays down a brief for her reformist side as eloquently as anyone in popular music ever has. Meanwhile, ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' gave the album a 7.0 rating. Reviewer Claire Shaffer disliked the album's country pop production, which she characterized as "bland". Yet Shaffer praised Guyton's vocal delivery and truthfulness in her lyrics: "As country music continues to grapple with its racial reckoning, Guyton has had no qualms about calling her white peers' complacency to task, and it's a relief that her defiance has carried over into the music. At its best, Remember Her Name captures her steadfastness and grace in equal measure." Jonathan Bernstein 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 ...

'' gave the collection a four-star rating in his review and found the album reflective: "She conjures pride, pain, wisdom, and joy when she delivers six words that she wishes the Mickey Guyton of 2015 could hear: 'I'm better than I should be.' And she's right on."

Release, chart performance and singles

Guyton announced the release of ''Remember Her Name'' in July 2021 in a statement from her record label. Guyton made the album's release public following her appearance at the

2021 CMT Music Awards The 2021 CMT Music Awards, the 55th edition of the awards ceremony, were held in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini were hosts of the ceremony. Background The CMT Music Awards are a fan-voted awards s ...

, where she performed alongside

Gladys Knight Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer, actress and businesswoman. A seven-time Grammy Award-winner, Knight recorded hits through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with her family group Gladys Kn ...

. The album was released on September 24, 2021, on Capitol Records Nashville. With its release, it became Guyton's first full-length studio album issued in her career. It was offered as a

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

, a music download and to streaming sites. It reached a peak of 47 on the ''

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 ...

Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales a ...

, becoming her first album to reach the list in her career. It was also her fourth release to make the ''Billboard''

Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart, peaking at number seven. Prior to the album's release, Capitol had issued "What Are You Gonna Tell Her?" as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on March 6, 2020 and "Black Like Me" as a single on June 2, 2020. The latter recording spent four weeks on the ''Billboard''

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart and reached number 27. In addition several

promotional single A promotional recording, or promo, or plug copy, is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as ...

s were also released prior to the album: the title track, "If I Were a Boy", "All-American", and "Love My Hair". At the

64th Annual Grammy Awards The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2020, to September 30, ...

, it was nominated for

Grammy Award for Best Country Album The Grammy Award for Best Country Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the country music genre. Honors in ...

, while the title track received nominations for

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 ...

and

Best Country Song The Grammy Award for Best Country Song (sometimes known as the Country Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1965. The award is given to the songwriter(s) of the song, not to the artist, except if the artist is also the songwriter. There ha ...

Track listing

Personnel

All credits are adapted from the

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

of ''Remember Her Name''.

Musical personnel

* Robert Bailey – background vocalist *

Victoria Banks Victoria Wenonah Banks (born February 8, 1973) is a Nashville-based Canadian singer and songwriter. Her self-produced debut CD ''When You Can Fly'' was released on the On Ramp/ EMI Canada label in April 2009. The CD earned Banks a 2010 Canadian ...

– background vocalist * Nathan Chapman – acoustic guitar, background vocalist, banjo, drums,

Hammond B3 Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in South ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, piano,

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

* Abbey Cone – background vocalist *

Chad Cromwell Chad Cromwell (born June 14, 1957) is an American rock drummer whose music career has spanned more than 30 years. He is the founding member of a band called Fortunate Sons, which released a self-titled album in 2004. Cromwell has worked with m ...

– drums, percussion * Eleonore Denig – strings * Kris Donegan – electric guitar * David Dorn – piano, strings *

Dan Dugmore Dan Dugmore is an American session musician known primarily for playing the pedal steel guitar Born in 1949, Dugmore was raised in Pasadena, California. Influenced by the Flying Burrito Brothers, he learned to play steel guitar after Flying B ...

–

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

* Eddy Dunlap – pedal steel guitar * Kim Fleming – background vocalist * Mickey Guyton – lead vocalist * Vicki Hampton – background vocalist * Evan Hutchings – drums, percussion *

Kevin Kadish Kevin Kadish (born 1971) is an American songwriter and record producer. He co-wrote, produced, and mixed the 2014 Diamond certified (10x platinum) single "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the ''Billboar ...

– electric guitar * David Kalmusky – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, strings,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptua ...

* Karen Kosowski – acoustic guitar, background vocalist, electric guitar, keyboards,

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

, piano, synthesizer * Emma-Lee – background vocalist * Jason Massey – strings * Larissa Maestro –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

* Devin Malone – acoustic guitar, electric guitar * Jaden Michaels – background vocalist * Amy Peters – keyboards * Jimmy Robbins – acoustic guitar, keyboards, mandolin * Jerry Roe – drums, percussion *

Marc Rogers Marc Rogers is a Canadian acoustic and electric bassist. Career Rogers studied at the University of North Texas College of Music, where he was a member of the One O'Clock Lab Band directed by Neil Slater. He is a member of the band The Philosop ...

–

acoustic bass guitar The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, electric guitar, synth bass guitar * Ryan Rossebo – guitar * Justin Schipper – pedal steel guitar * Johnny Simmen – background vocalist, drums, guitar, keyboards *

Andy Skib Andy Skib (born November 9, 1985, San Diego, California) is the lead singer of the rock band Midwest Kings (MWK). He spent most of 2009 on the Declaration Tour with ''American Idol'' season seven winner David Cook. Skib has previously co-writ ...

– background vocalist, electric guitar * Gavin Slate – background vocalist, guitar *

Aaron Sterling Aaron Sterling (born July 9, 1980) is an American drummer, producer, engineer, and session musician who lives in Los Angeles. The son of professional musicians, Sterling grew up in Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, before moving to L.A. in 2000. K ...

– drums, percussion * Akil Thompson – Hammond B3 * Derek Wells – acoustic guitar,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, electric guitar, guitar, mandolin * Forest Whitehead – acoustic guitar, banjo, bass guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, piano

Technical personnel

* Ethan Barrette – engineer * Liam Bischoff – assistant recording engineer * Tyler Burns – assistant recording engineer * Jason Campbell – production coordinator * Chad Carlso – engineer * Nathan Chapman – drum programmer, engineer, producer * Serban Ghenea – mixer * Mike "Frog" Griffith – programmer * Blake Hubbard – programmer * Jarrod Ingram – programmer * Scott Johnson – production coordinator * David Kamulsky – engineer, mixer, producer, programmer * Karen Kosowski – engineer, editor, mixer, producer, programmer, synthesizer programmer * Owen Lewis – editor * Allison McAnally – production coordinator * Carly McKillip – engineer, editor * Michael Meechling – assistant recording engineer, assistant mixer * Andrew Mendelson – mastering engineer * Amy Peters – engineer, editor, programmer * Jimmy Robbins – engineer, producer, programmer * Jerry Roe – engineer * Justin Schipper – engineer * Alberto Sewald – engineer, editor *

F. Reid Shippen F. Reid Shippen is a mixer, engineer and producer, currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. He has mixed a wide variety of records including "Cosmic Hallelujah" by Kenny Chesney, " Lights Out" by Ingrid Michaelson, "The Mountain" by Dierks Bent ...

– engineer, mixer * Johnny Simmen – engineer, producer, programmer * Andy Skib – producer, programmer * Gavin Slate – engineer, mixer, producer, programmer * Yihan Wei – engineer * Derek Wells – engineer * Forest Whitehead – drum programmer, engineer, producer

Charts

Release history

References

{{Mickey Guyton 2021 debut albums Capitol Records Nashville albums Mickey Guyton albums Universal Music Group albums