Taylor Swift has revisited her country music roots by lending her vocals to Sugarland’s new single, Babe.
Swift penned the track with Train frontman Pat Monahan, and originally intended to record it for her 2012 album, Red.
She ended up leaving the tune off the project, but when she heard Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and bandmate Kristian Bush were planning a comeback last year (17), she decided to offer it up to the duo.
Jennifer and Kristian accepted the song gift, and it now features on their upcoming album, Bigger, marking the first time they have included a track they did not write on their own release.
Babe, which details the end of a relationship with a cheating lover, was made all the more special after Taylor asked if she could join the pair on the tune itself.
“This collaboration is the perfect combination of mutual admiration for each other and mutual admiration for great songs,” Jennifer gushed in a statement on Friday (20Apr18), when the single dropped. “As artists, we really see the world through a similar lens…
“We’ve never put someone else’s song on a Sugarland record, but we were immediately interested in Babe the first time we heard it! This one really felt like it belonged so we saved it for the final afternoon of our recording session; a special time for us.”
Guitarist/singer Kristian added, “Our last hours in the studio have always been good luck… The biggest compliment was when she (Taylor) heard our take on the track and emailed us to say she wanted to be a part of it!”
Babe is Sugarland’s third single since ending their four-year hiatus in November (17).
Their comeback album, Bigger, is set to launch in June (18), eight years after their last full-length studio project, 2010’s The Incredible Machine.
Meanwhile, Swift, who has transitioned into the mainstream pop world in recent years, hasn’t been completely absent from the country music scene – she also wrote Little Big Town’s 2016 hit single, Better Man.
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