Forget the chicken and the egg. Gabby Barrett faced an even more pressing question: What comes first, the baby or the album?
Coincidentally, the platinum-selling artist gave birth to her third child days after the Friday release of her much-anticipated sophomore album, Chapter and verse.
But while the album seems to have taken precedence over the baby’s arrival – there’s no update from the Barrett camp yet – the 23-year-old singer doesn’t hesitate to rank which is more important to her. “I would have to put the child over the album,” he happily confirms.
Barrett and her husband, Cade Foehner, are already parents to 3-year-old daughter Baylah and 15-month-old son Augustine and are overjoyed to welcome another daughter. But even though the couple’s family comes first, the soon-to-be mother of three says that both the baby and the album are “exciting releases, for sure.”
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Chapter and verse by Gabby Barrett.
Robby Klein
If the album feels like a fourth child to Barrett, there’s a good reason. The 14 songs of the project are full of songs that reflect her life and what means the most to her: faith, family, love and marriage.
It’s a long way — in a relatively short amount of time — from “I Hope,” her now-classic revenge song that launched her career. Barrett wrote it when she was just 18, inspired by a real heartbreak in high school.
But now, she says, there is no temptation to return to that topic.
“I hope not,” he says with a laugh. “I really don’t deal with topics that don’t make sense for my life at the time. There are people who do that if they are just telling stories. But as for me, I really rely on what’s happening around me and what I’m connecting with now.”
She does not lack inspiration. Fans have already embraced the first single, “Glory Days,” a Barrett co-write that revels in the simple joys of raising a family. She continues to mine this rich vein of material with two more co-writes, “The Chapter” and “Growin’ Up Raising You,” heart-warming with an emotional maturity that matches her preternatural voice.
Her spirited “Growin’ Up” is a musical love letter to herself and her firstborn child: “We’ll make mistakes, we’ll get it right. / Lots of tears, we’ll both have to cry / you’ll learn to run, I’ll learn to let go / The years will go fast, the nights will go slow / God knows the best thing I’ll ever do / will be growing up raising you.”
“The Chapter”, the album’s cover and half of the title, describes her life today, set to a dynamic rhythm that surely matches her daily pace: “I’m not a child, but I’m not all the way grown up / and I make a mess, but I make a home. / I clear paths and burn biscuits. / I still ask for help, and God still listens to me.”
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Barrett’s strong faith flows effortlessly through the album — starting, obviously, with the title and appearing most profoundly in the back bookend, “The Verse.” It’s a traditional Christian church doxology, and Christian artist Phil Wickham joins Barrett on a solemn, reverent song.
Other standouts include “Had It All,” a nostalgia-soaked rumination on Barrett’s childhood, and “Off the Highway,” a joyous date night ride. Barrett also offers two memorable tributes to her lanky husband, “Cowboy Back” and “You’re My Texas.” She co-wrote the latter with Miranda Lambert — one of two head-turning names in the album’s opening credits. Second: Luke Combs, co-writer of “Dance Like No One’s Watching.”
Barrett says she was actually enjoying a bath in her bathtub when Combs texted her a song out of the blue. (The two met through industry events, she explains, “but I can’t say we’re friends. We don’t go fishing together!”)
The father-daughter song was written shortly after Combs’ wife Nicole became pregnant with their first child. After Combs found out they were expecting a boy, Barrett says, he decided the song was no longer his to sing. Barrett was happy to record it, then persuaded Combs to lay down a harmonious song for the recording. Now he hopes for a live duet opportunity one day.
That day will be a long way off, though, as Barrett begins her maternity leave. He says he doesn’t expect to return to the tour until this summer. She will be joined, of course, by her husband, who plays guitar in her band, and their children. A nanny also comes in to help out when both parents are on stage, but otherwise, Barrett prides herself on being a hands-on mom. He estimates that he spends much more than half of his time in a family role, and he wants to.
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Her children, she says, “made me realize that my priority is my family and that I am a mother above all else.” That’s what I’d be really happy with, if I could choose one thing.”
Luckily for fans, she doesn’t have to. She believes that God’s word has given her the tools to enjoy her family and career.
“It’s really what energizes me as a person,” she says, “and what I believe in, what I look at, and what I renew my mind with.”
None of her roles, she insists, require her to sacrifice herself for another. “I try my best to really prioritize and dedicate X amount of time to music and X amount of time to family,” she says. “And right now, I think we’re in a really good balance.”
Now that her daughter Baylah is older, Barrett says she’s starting to experience moments when her two worlds merge. “She really understands business and music,” says the proud mom, “and goes on stage for sound checks and loves it. He especially likes ‘Glory Days’ and ‘Pick Me Up’ and demands that they be played all the time.”
Recently, the two were shopping, and the song “Glory Days” was heard over the mall’s public address system. Barrett recounts Baylah asking, “Is that mom singing?”
“And I said, ‘Yeah, it is,'” Barrett says, marveling at the coincidence. “You’re doing such a normal thing, but then you hear yourself in the mall.”
It was a moment, she says, when she actually dreamed of herself as a little girl.
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Source: HIS Education