Drew Kennedy has created 11 albums and spent two decades of writing songs for himself and with others, including Lori McKenna, Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers. Now he’s finally releasing a self-titled album, out May 18, 2025. The song “Halo” is out now, which is dedicated to the memory of youthful first dates and all their jitters.

He explains:

I enjoyed getting to re-examine all of these young memories and feelings on some of the songs that ended up on the record. ‘I’m always so focused on what’s next that it was nice to spend a little time uncovering how I even got here in the first place.

‘Halo’ is about those moments I used to take just beyond the reach of a front porch light before a first date to gather myself, give myself a pep talk, count down from ten before walking up to ring the bell, then counting down from ten one more time because I wasn’t ready after the last ten before walking up to ring the bell. You get the picture.

Kennedy’s last album, 2022’s Marathon, was created in a small house in a West Texas town “with all of the doors and windows open”. He promised his producer, Davis Naish, that if he agreed to do the record that way, he would record his next one at his studio in LA. While choosing songs for the album, Naish picked six out of the 20 that were solo writes. He said he wanted to be the Producer “to take the snapshot of the songwriter 25 years in.”

Kennedy says:

These are songs that I wrote for me and for the kid who I was before there were songs, and songs for the future. I finally get to write with the best—truly the best songwriters in the world after all of this time–and I end up making a record of 100%ers. Go figure.