Charlie Worsham described the guitar playing on his new song “Half Drunk” as “boozy, hillbilly Keith Richards.” In other words, the perfect tones to tell a story about drunkenly and spontaneously saying “I love you” to your person. The Mississippi native and longtime Nashvillian debuted “Half Drunk” on Friday, along with the announcement of a new EP. Titled Sugarcane, the project arrives July 16th.
“Half Drunk” is based on Worsham’s own experience: He was onstage at Nashville’s bluegrass epicenter, the Station Inn, when he decided to tell his now-wife Kristen that he loved her. “Just cause I went and said what I meant don’t mean I didn’t mean it 100 percent,” he sings. “I’m all the way into you.”
“I’d just been fired by my publisher and my manager had quit management that week, but I was singing that day in one of my favorite rooms in all the world, the Station Inn,” he says in a statement. “Powered by Yazoo Pale Ale, applause, and a sense that this girl I was crazy about might just be more special and more permanent than the whole music industry thing, I turned to Kristen, said those three magic words, and she said ‘I love you too.’ I hope this song inspires a lot of drunken making out and maybe a few last-time-saying-I-love-you-for-the-first-time moments.”
“Half Drunk” premieres with an accompanying music video that focuses on a mural painter bearing his soul to a love interest. It also shows Worsham playing guitar with, true to his story, a draught beer by his side.
The new song follows “Fist Through This Town” and “Believe in Love,” both fresh tracks by Worsham, who’s been recording with producer Jay Joyce.