''Nobody's Born with a Broken Heart'' is the second studio album by Canadian

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

MacKenzie Porter MacKenzie Lea Porter (born January 29, 1990) is a Canadian country singer, songwriter, and actress. She has released two albums (''MacKenzie Porter'' and '' Nobody's Born with a Broken Heart'') and achieved four Canada Country number ones with " ...

. It was released on April 26, 2024, on

Big Loud Records Big Loud is an American independent multi-sector entertainment company located in Nashville. It consists of a record label, along with music publishing and talent management divisions. Big Loud was founded in 2013 by Craig Wiseman, Joey Moi, Kev ...

. Porter wrote nine of the nineteen tracks on the album, and longtime collaborator

Joey Moi Joey Moi (born August 9, 1975) is a Canadian record producer, audio engineer, mixer, songwriter, and musician. He is known for his work with the rock groups Nickelback and My Darkest Days, and country music acts Chris Lane, Dallas Smith, Florida G ...

produced every track. The album includes the singles " Pickup", " Chasing Tornadoes", " Bet You Break My Heart", "Easy to Miss", and " Have Your Beer".

Background and release

In January 2024, Porter announced the album concurrently with the release of four songs: "Easy to Miss", "Young at Heart", "Pay Me Back in Change", and "Nobody's Born with a Broken Heart". The album was Porter's first full-length album to be released in the United States, and marked her debut full-length album on

, six years after signing with the label. Some of the songs on the album were written as early as 2017, while others were written as recently as 2023.

Content

Porter stated that the album's title, ''Nobody's Born with a Broken Heart'', reflects the sentiment that, "we all have these experiences, whether it's actual heartbreak in a relationship, work heartbreak, family heartbreak or whatever your situation may be. You always feel a little broken from different situations that you had envisioned to go a different way in your head, and overall that builds who you are as a person". Despite being in a happy marriage, Porter elected to record several "heartbreak" songs, including "Pay Me Back in Change" and "Foreclosure", as there "are times even in a really happy, healthy relationship where it feels dark," and that they are "part of the story too". She also remarked that she was happy to have more songs containing the

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 in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

, and

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

on this album.

Critical reception

Madison Hahnen of ''Music Row'' stated that the album "features vulnerable lyrics and clever lyrical hooks," noting that it "bridges the gap between country and

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

". Hannah Compton of ''Building Our Own Nashville'' favourably reviewed the album, opining that it "paints a picturesque journey of heartbreak in a series of songs that are painfully relatable but also lead you onto the road of self healing". Stephen Andrew of ''Popculture'' described the album as a "phenomenal offering of pop-country songs full of sincerity, maturity, and driving-with-the-windows-down melodies". Laura Cooney of ''Entertainment Focus'' called the album a "strong introduction" to Porter's sound, highlighting "her vocal skills and ability as both a songwriter and an interpreter". Chris Parton of ''Nashville Lifestyles'' stated that the album "captures all different kinds of heartbreak, from the typical romantic ups and downs of dating (or even married life) to the struggle of getting a career off the ground".

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *

– lead vocals * Dave Cohen –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

, keyboards,

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

* Jacob Durrett –

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

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 Bur ...

–

pedal steel The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

* Larry Franklin –

* David Garcia – bass, electric guitar * Zach Kale – programming * Trey Keller – background vocals * Rob McNelley – electric guitar *

– programming * Jerry Roe – drums, percussion, shaker,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

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

– bass *

Bryan Sutton James Bryan Sutton (born 1973) 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 gr ...

– acoustic guitar,

dulcimer The term dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

Ilya Toshinskiy 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 al ...

– acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin * Derek Wells – electric guitar * Alex Wright – mandolin, Hammond B3 organ, keyboards,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

Technical * Joey Moi – production, mixing *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' '' Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Early life ...

– mastering * Josh Ditty – mixing, recording,

editing Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...

, recording assistance * Eivind Nordland – mixing, editing *

Olle Romo Olle Romö is a Swedish music producer, songwriter, and drummer. Romo rehearsed with Swedish progressive rock group Kaipa in early 1982; however, he left the group after a few weeks to join Eurythmics, and he was a drummer for them from the mid ...

– mixing * Ryan Yount – recording, editing, recording assistance * Jeff Balding – recording * Ally Gecewicz – editing, production management * Scott Cooke – editing * Mike Walter – recording assistance * Sean Badum – recording assistance * Grant Wilson – recording assistance * Austin Brown – recording assistance * Katelyn Prieboy – room assistance * Jacob Durrett – vocal recording, co-production on "Easy to Miss" * David Garcia – co-production on "Easy to Miss" Visuals * Andrew Cook – art direction, creative direction, graphic design * Tori Johnson – art direction, creative direction * MacKenzie Porter – creative direction * Bree Fish – photography

Charts

Singles

Awards and nominations

Release history

Notes

References

{{authority control 2024 albums Albums produced by Joey Moi Big Loud albums MacKenzie Porter albums