You tend to feel bad for Carley Pearce, not because she hasn\u2019t enjoyed a quite successful career compared to so many country hopefuls not signed to major labels, or being considered by the big award shows. But at some point it\u2019s like the industry made a choice: We can only have one woman be a superstar at once, so let\u2019s shove all our chips on the Lainey Wilson square. It still feels like that\u2019s a bet waiting to pay off. <\/p>
Meanwhile, Carly Pearce has done a much better job keeping it country, keeping it classy, putting out critically-acclaimed records, yet continues to be generally ignored in the greater consciousness. Now here comes this new crop of country women, namely Ella Langley who doesn\u2019t have nearly the songwriting chops of Carly Pearce, and Megan Moroney who can barely sing compared to Carly, and they\u2019re topping the Billboard all-genre singles and albums chart<\/a><\/strong> simultaneously. <\/p> Timing is so incredibly critical to the success of a country artist, and Carly just came around a tick too soon to take advantage of the retrenching of country women at the top of the mainstream \u2026 or did she? Clearly, that\u2019s a major part of the calculus with \u201cIf I Don\u2019t Leave I\u2019m Gonna Stay.\u201d This song is about trying to inject Carly Pearce back into the conversation, and using Riley Green\u2019s mustache to do so. <\/p> The Country Music Antichrist Scott Borchetta is back in control at Big Machine Records where both Carly Pearce and Riley Green are signed, and poppa needs a hit. They see what\u2019s going on with Ella Langley getting so much heat after her Riley Green collabs, and they want to start pulling on the teat of that cash cow themselves.