Chase Bryant will never forget his grandparents’ pool house.
“I grew up playing pool there with guys who came from Mexico to work on the farm,” Bryant, 31, recalled during an interview with PEOPLE. “If you couldn’t beat them, you didn’t get a tortilla or a taco or whatever. So we grew up breaking our teeth trying to become good pool players.”
Just a few short decades later, the “Little Bit of You” hitmaker returned to the treasured location during the pandemic to not only live there, but also create his new EP Cayo del Grullothe third in Bryant’s five-part musical kaleidoscope to be shared with the world in 2024, each EP named after a place pivotal to the course of Bryant’s life thus far.
“Cayo del Grullo was named after Baffin Bay, area of Texas not far from my grandparents’ farm,” Bryant tells PEOPLE.
However, before the work could begin Cayo del Grullo, there was work to be done on that beloved old pool house. “I took that room, and I turned that room and part of the garage into a studio,” Bryant explains. “Ninety-nine percent of Cayo del Grullo happened there. I went to Nashville and did a couple of things there, but that was about it kind of conceived and completed there.”
Chase Bryant.
Samantha Mahler
Bryant’s dedication to creation Cayo del Grullo in Texas was strong for many reasons. “It was a big coming to Jesus for me in the sense that I knew I loved Texas, and I knew I loved that house, and all I really wanted to do was just make one record before I said goodbye to the house,” he says. Bryant, who moved to Nashville in 2022 before moving to Charleston in 2024. “So I did just that.”
And from the beginning, creation Cayo del Grullo it should have remained simple and organic. “This record was my first opportunity to work with Chad Cromwell, Craig Young and Bryan Sutton,” Bryant says of his musical comrades. “All three are equally heroic characters in the studio, as musicians and on tour.”
Of course, because Cayo del Grullo was recorded nearly two years ago, the core meaning behind EP songs like “Love You My Whole Life” seems to have evolved now that Bryant and wife Selena Weber Bryant are expecting their first child.
“[Selena] and I only lived together for a few weeks when I played her [“Love You My Whole Life”]and I just remember how much she loved it,” Bryant recalls. “I don’t know if I noticed her on the record, but Selena you should be, because I think she was the engineer for tracking that song.”
Bryant laughs, explaining, “I was in another room by myself, I’d give her a press shoot and make sure all the levels were goo. I taught her how to do it and how to get the drum sounds.”
Chase Bryant & Wife Selena Weber Expect First Child: ‘Pretty Surreal Moment’ (Exclusive)
Included on Cayo del Grullo are also cuts that Bryant has long believed in, including the irresistible “Little Town.” “It’s been around since the Broken Bow days,” says Bryant, referring to his previous label. “There were certain people there who loved it, but yeah, that song kind of always stuck.”
Cayo del Grullo it also gave Bryant the opportunity to collaborate with longtime friend and country music collaborator Jake Owen on the introspective song “Where the Good Ones Go,” written by Bryant, Bob DiPiero and Chris Loocke.
“Jake Owen has always been the absolute nicest, most successful guy to me of any artist in the business, at any level, of anyone I’ve ever toured with or anyone I’ve ever known,” Bryant says. “He was so kind to come and sing that song with me. And I have the utmost respect for Jake. I think he’s one of the most underrated artists out there in the genre and a walking encyclopedia of country music.”
Throughout the recording of the EP, Bryant says he could feel the spirits of his late grandparents floating through his mind.
“It was kind of like talking to spirits,” Bryant says. “I feel like I owe that house and those memories in that house as much as anything else.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education