Sky’s the Limit

Dressed in a white tank top, blue jeans, and brown knee-high boots, Maren Morris slides into a suede chair in the sunroom of her manager’s East Nashville bungalow. Morning sunlight filters into the serene setting, but there’s an underlying current of anxious energy. Morris’s manager and publicist are working their phones and laptops. Boxes of chocolate croissants on the coffee table go untouched. Tomorrow, the twenty-eight-year-old will fly to New York City to premiere the video for “Girl,” an empowering anthem to everyday women and the opening salvo of her highly anticipated new album of the same name.

Raised in Arlington, Texas, Morris spent her teenage years crisscrossing the state to play any stage she could. She moved to Nashville at twenty-two with the goal of becoming a songwriter rather than a performer. But after penning tracks for the likes of Tim McGraw and Kelly Clarkson, she felt the pull back to, in 2016. The album garnered her a host of Grammy nominations, including a win for Best Country Solo Performance for the breakout ode-to-Hank-and-Johnny single “My Church.”