Trisha Yearwood debuted her new song titled “Put It in a Song” during the 2024 CMT Music Awards in Austin on Sunday, marking the country vet’s first new single since 2020.
The Grammy winner took the stage under a lone spotlight as she delivered the cathartic lyrics: “If it’s too hard to admit/If it’s a memory that won’t quit/If it makes you want to cry all night long/Put it in the song.” The track’s rich melody and devastating chorus — “All the pain and all the hurt, when it’s too hard just to say the words/I find my pen and pour it on the page/Grab a guitar and just play along/It don’t matter who was right or wrong/Just put it in a song” — made Yearwood’s latest offering an instant classic.
“Put It In a Song” was co-written with Erin Enderlin and Jim “Moose” Brown, and is the lead single from Yearwood’s as-of-yet untitled upcoming 16th album, a followup to her 2019 LP Every Girl. In her over 30-year career as a recording artist, the project is the first time Yearwood is a co-writer on every track on the album.
Yearwood was also honored as the inaugural recipient of CMT’s June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award at this year’s ceremony. It was also the singer’s first appearance on the telecast since 2019, when she performed “Delta Dawn” alongside Tanya Tucker and Brandi Carlile.
Yearwood was recognized for her charitable work with Habitat for Humanity, the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, the American Cancer Society, and the Humane Society, among several other groups. She and husband Garth Brooks were recognized as Habitat Humanitarians in 2016.
The Humanitarian Award was created to recognize a musician “who demonstrates an exceptional dedication to community and their fellow artists, embodying June’s spirit as a fierce advocate and initiator in paying it forward, helping others find their voice and using their platform to inspire and uplift others.”
During Yearwood’s speech when accepting the award, the artist said it was an honor to have her name “in the same sentence as June Carter Cash.”
“She found ways to keep shining her own light,” she said, adding, “and she had no bigger fan than her husband, Johnny Cash.” Yearwood continued, “I only hope with this [award] to be as big a part of my community and as good of a friend to fellow artists as she was. It can be really hard to stand up for what is right and what you believe in. June just did it.”