''Southside'' is the second studio album by American singer

Sam Hunt Sam Lowry Hunt (born December 8, 1984) is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Hunt played football in his high school and college years and once attempted to pursue a professional sports career before signing with MCA ...

. It was released through

MCA 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 ...

on April 3, 2020. It was slated to be supported by the Southside Summer Tour 2020, which would have featured guests

Kip Moore Kipling Christian Moore (born April 2, 1980) is an American country music singer and songwriter signed to MCA Nashville. He has released a total of four studio albums for the label: '' Up All Night'', '' Wild Ones'', ''Slowheart'', and '' Wild ...

Travis Denning Travis Denning (born December 1, 1992) is an American country music singer and songwriter signed to UMG Nashville's Mercury Nashville label. He has charted with the singles " David Ashley Parker from Powder Springs" and " After a Few", the latter ...

Brandi Cyrus Brandi Cyrus is an American actress and DJ. She used to co-host '' Cyrus vs. Cyrus: Design and Conquer'' on Bravo and is a co-host of the ''Your Favorite Thing'' podcast. Personal life Her mother is Leticia "Tish" Cyrus, and her father is c ...

, and

Ernest Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic languages, Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman ...

, and was set to begin in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, on May 28, 2020, but canceled due to 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 ...

Background

Following the success of Hunt's debut album ''

Montevallo Montevallo is a city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States. A college town, it is the home of the University of Montevallo, a public liberal arts university with approximately 3,000 students. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city o ...

'', released in 2014, Hunt sporadically released several singles while delaying his second studio album. In the years between, he released the massive hit "

Body Like a Back Road "Body Like a Back Road" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Sam Hunt. It was released to country radio, by MCA Nashville on February 2, 2017, as the lead single from his second studio album ''Southside''. The song is ...

", "

Downtown's Dead "Downtown's Dead" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Sam Hunt. It is Hunt's eighth single release, and the follow-up to his 2017 hit "Body Like a Back Road" as well as the second single from his second studio album ' ...

", as well as the track " Drinkin' Too Much". Hunt gave little details on when his second album would be released until the release of "

Kinfolks "Kinfolks" is a song recorded by American country music singer Sam Hunt, released as a single on October 11, 2019. It is the third single from Hunt's second studio album ''Southside''. It is Hunt's ninth single release, and he co-wrote it with Zac ...

" in October 2019, when he stated the full album would be released in 2020 and followed it up with the release of the track "

Sinning with You "Sinning with You" is a song recorded by American country singer Sam Hunt. He co-wrote the track with Josh Osborne, Paul DiGiovanni, and Emily Weisband. It was a promotional single released off his second studio album ''Southside''. Background ...

" in January 2020. In February 2020, Hunt finally revealed the album title ''Southside'' as well as an April 2020 release date. The track "

Hard to Forget "Hard to Forget" is a song recorded by American country music singer Sam Hunt. It is the fourth single from his second studio album ''Southside''. Hunt wrote the song with Ashley Gorley, Josh Osborne, Luke Laird, and Shane McAnally. The song cont ...

" was soon released to coincide with the beginning of pre-orders, and was later announced to be the next single.

Critical reception

''Southside'' was met with generally positive 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 critics, the album holds an average score of 72 based on six reviews. Writing for ''

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 ...

'', Jon Freeman highlighted the "thread of sensitivity" in ''Southside'' and opined that the album made Hunt "a crossover star." Chris DeVille of ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...

'' positively compared the album to ''Montevallo'', praising how the former contains "ever more adventurous packaging and a more seasoned perspective". In concurrence, ''

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 ...

''s Natalie Weiner stated that the album "shows a clarity of purpose that his debut lacked" while also praising Hunt's "enviably organic" way of threading "the country/hip-hop needle". In a mixed review, Seth Wilson of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' took note of the album's "ingratiating charm" but criticized its lyrical content.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

awarded the album an A− grade in his online subscription letter praising in particular Hunt's "way with words" prevailing throughout the record, citing the chorus of 'Body Like a Back Road' as an example of his words cherishing "the American vernacular that imbues great pop songwriting from Irving Berlin to Jay-Z in a Nashville dialect that recalls John Prine".

Rankings

Commercial performance

''Southside'' debuted at number five on the US ''Billboard'' 200, opening with 46,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

s, including 18,000 pure album sales. It earned the third-largest streaming week for a country album, and is Hunt's second US top-10 album.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from ''Southside'' liner notes. *Gideon Boley –

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 ...

(track 3) *Tim Braisted – bass guitar (track 8), background vocals (track 10) *Josh Burkett – electric guitar (track 8), guitar (track 5) *Bryce Cain – acoustic guitar (track 10), keyboards (track 10), programming (track 10) *Tyrone Carreker – electric guitar (track 8), background vocals (track 10) *Jamil Chammas – electric guitar (track 8) *Dave Cohen – keyboards (track 10) *

Zach Crowell Zach Crowell is a songwriter and record producer, who was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Crowell is involved in a joint publishing agreement with Round Hill Music and Taperoom Music. In 2012, he co-wrote and produced the song "Confe$$io ...

– bass guitar (track 3), acoustic guitar (track 6), keyboards (tracks 2–7, 9, 11, 12), programming (all tracks), background vocals (tracks 2–6, 8, 9) *Ian Fitchuk – keyboards (tracks 5, 8),

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 ...

(track 5) *Jeneé Fleenor –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

(tracks 2, 4, 9) *Jerry Flowers – background vocals (track 3) *Charlie Handsome – acoustic guitar (track 8), programming (track 8) *

– guitar (track 5), lead vocals (all tracks) *Evan Hutchings – drums (track 8) *Chris LaCorte –

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 ...

(track 7), acoustic guitar (tracks 3, 7), electric guitar (track 7), keyboards (track 3) *

Luke Laird Luke Robert Laird (born May 4, 1978 in Hartstown, Pennsylvania) is an American country music songwriter and producer. He has written over 20 number one ''Billboard'' singles, including Carrie Underwood's "So Small", "Temporary Home", and "Und ...

– acoustic guitar (track 2), electric guitar (track 2), programming (track 2) *Devin Malone –

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 ...

(track 12), acoustic guitar (tracks 1, 4, 9, 11), electric guitar (tracks 3, 4, 8, 11), guitar (tracks 5, 12), pedal steel guitar (tracks 3, 9, 12) *Josh Matheny –

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

(tracks 3, 7, 11), acoustic guitar (track 3) *Anthony Olympia – dobro (track 8) *Josh Osborne – guitar (track 5), background vocals (tracks 3, 5) *Justin Ostrander – electric guitar (track 8) *Russ Pahl – dobro (track 2), pedal steel guitar (tracks 1, 2, 6, 7, 11) *Sol Philcox-Littlefield – electric guitar (track 4) *

Joshua Sales Joshua Sales (born August 10, 1987) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and session musician. Since 2014, he has played drums for Sam Hunt. Drumming career Sales moved to Nashville, TN in 2011. In late 2013, Sales got a call from S ...

– drums (tracks 5, 8) *Scotty Sanders – dobro (track 5), pedal steel guitar (tracks 5, 8) *

Jimmie Lee Sloas Jimmie Lee Sloas is an American session musician, producer, and songwriter, who plays bass guitar. History Jimmie Lee Sloas, born in Ashland, Kentucky, grew up in Fairborn, Ohio and Isonville, Kentucky. His father, Dave, was a member of the p ...

– bass guitar (tracks 1, 3, 4) *

Bryan Sutton Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs. Biography Early career Sutton's grandfather and ...

– acoustic guitar (tracks 1, 10) *Russell Terrell – background vocals (track 1) *

Ilya Toshinsky Bering Strait was a Russian country music band, whose style was sometimes called "redgrass". In 2003, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award and appeared on the TV show ''60 Minutes''. The group disbanded in 2006. The lineup on their first alb ...

– banjo (tracks 3, 4), dobro (track 3), acoustic guitar (tracks 2–4, 11), electric guitar (tracks 8, 11) *

Derek Wells Derek M. Wells, KC, (born 28 November 1946) is a Canadian former politician who served a Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of South Shore from 1993 to 1997. Early life and education Born in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, he graduate ...

– electric guitar (track 3) *

Nir Z NIR or Nir may refer to: Science and technology * Near-infrared, a region within the infrared part of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum * Near-infrared spectroscopy, a spectroscopic method that uses the near-infrared region (from 780 nm to 25 ...

. – drums (tracks 3, 4)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2020 albums Albums produced by Shane McAnally Albums produced by Zach Crowell MCA Records albums Sam Hunt albums Contemporary R&B albums by American artists