As the runner up on the tenth season of American Idol, Lauren Alaina already had established herself as a singer and entertainer. She was signed to Interscope Records/Mercury Nashville/19 Recordings and released her debut single “Like My Mother Does” following the finale of American Idol. The song entered the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at forty-nine and the Hot 100 chart at twenty and sold 121,000 copies in its first week.
Alaina released her debut album Wildflower, which debuted at number five on the US Billboard Hot 200 chart and sold 69,000 copies the first week. The album spawned the hit singles “Like My Mother Does,” Georgia Peaches” and “18 Inches,” and helped earn Lauren the 2012 title of New Artist of the Year by the American Country Awards. After years of touring with everyone from Sugarland to Alan Jackson to Jason Aldean, Lauren has spent much of 2014 writing songs with Nashville’s best craftsmen for her 2015 album release.
Her self-titled 5 song EP released late last year shows the Georgia native’s evolution since Idol and in the five years since her debut with Wildflower. In that time she has not only gained confidence, but learned a lot as a singer and songwriter and also went through vocal-cord surgery in 2014 — Alaina has said she feels like a totally new artist. In addition to the stronger, wider range of her voice and her trimmed-and-toned look, she’s also taken a big step into her songwriting. She co-wrote all five songs on the new EP including the first two released “Next Boyfriend” and “History,” and one with her good friend and pop star Meghan Trainor which is the EP’s latest release, “Road Less Traveled.”
“I’m just really excited to open this new chapter for everyone to hear,” she told the Cattanooga Times Free Press. “I wrote over 200 songs for this project and picked my top 12 for the album. On the EP there are five, and I think they are a good summary of what the album is going to be. I want to reintroduce everyone to me and give them an idea of how I’ve grown.”
Lauren Alaina will be performing at the WGAR Country Jam on Saturday, August 6 at Black River Landing in Lorain, Oho.
Here is the audio for her latest single from the EP co-written by Alaina and Meaghan Trainor, “Road Less Traveled.”
