It’s been a long road for budding country superstar Jerrod Niemann, from his years as a songwriter for artists like Garth Brooks and Neal McCoy, to his stint as an independent recording artist.

But all that work has paid off — his year-old debut, ‘Judge Jerrod and the Hung Jury,’ went to number one, and with his latest single, ‘One More Drinkin’ Song,’ he has three top 40 hits to his credit, including the number one ‘Lover, Lover.’ What’s next for Niemann?

He opened up about his plans for his upcoming album during a recent interview with Taste of Country, saying, “I’m sticking with using the guys in the band to play on the album. They’re going to play on it again, and I feel like we all learned a lot from the first experience, so we’re just excited to get it done.”

Asked to reflect on how he’s changed as a bandleader and artist between albums, Niemann said, “To me it was just to listen to each other and also just to be creative and not over think things and just have fun. As a songwriter, I’ve been as hard on myself as I’ve always been, at least to get the song as strong as I think it can be lyrically and melodically. So to me it’s just to not get lazy as a songwriter.”

And what can fans expect to hear from the music? Niemann offered this tidbit: “The first album is definitely a concept record. It wasn’t necessarily musically a concept record … it was just sort of the organized chaos that made it flow. This album, the instrumentation is what is going to be conceptual, other than just the actual structure of the album.”

Listen to Jerrod Niemann’s ‘One More Drinkin’ Song’

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