LISTEN: Scotty McCreery Sets His Gaze Outward on ‘Same Truck’

The title track from Scotty McCreery‘s Same Truck album is a likable message of unity that fits safely within the singer’s comfortable repertoire. Images of rural America color a guitar and mandolin-led arrangement that finds the 27-year-old focused on the world around him.

McCreery has done little of this across his four previous studio albums. Songs of love and loss have stood out and almost exclusively been chosen for radio singles. Exceptions include “Water Tower Town” (easily tied to his hometown, even if he didn’t write it) and “In Between,” a chart-topping co-write that smartly adds a chapter mark in his career, making clear he’s no longer the kid who won American Idol a decade ago.

“But we’re all in the same truck / Heading down a different two lane / Kickin’ up the same dust / Praying for the same rain,” he sings at the chorus. “Closing down the same bars / Different wishes on the same stars / Getting every mile out of these good years ’til the day He calls us up / We’re all in the same truck.”

Time — and a sure-to-come media tour — may reveal if a tumultuous two years in American social politics inspired this new song. McCreery certainly isn’t stepping forward to lead a movement for equality, but he is showing that he’s comfortable putting his voice to ideas bigger than him. That’s a promising step forward for a singer and songwriter with quite a bit of promise.

McCreery’s Same Truck album is due out on Sept. 17.