When Justin Moore was working on his Late Nights and Longnecks album, he was in heaven with some of the studio musicians they brought in, like Brent Mason on electric guitar and Paul Franklin on steel guitar, who played on so many of the 90’s country hits Justin loves.  Brent played on albums for artists like George Strait, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn and Shania Twain, and Paul’s steel guitar playing can be heard on a lot of 90’s projects, including George Strait and Alan Jackson, plus Patty Loveless, Faith Hill and Clint Black.  So, the stories they had to share with Justin while they were all in the studio working together just mesmerized him.  “Oh man, they had some doozies,” he says. “I think one of them was telling a good George Jones story one day, and I forget exactly what the story was, but they are full of stories.”

Plus, Justin knows Brent and Paul have crafted some of the most famous licks and sounds on different songs, and he says, “I’m sitting there going, I mean, he played that guitar part, probably with that guitar. You know what I mean?”

While Justin will usually offer suggestions to the studio musicians about how he thinks they should play something, based on how he’s hearing it in his head, he said for the making of Late Nights and Longnecks that wasn’t the case. “You just kind of get out of their way. If they want to tell a story, by all means have at it,” says Justin.  “Because I’ve always been real involved, and I go, ‘Hey, I’m kinda hearin’ this.’ Not this time. I was just like, I’ll just let y’all do your thing.”

Justin’s latest song, “We Didn’t Have Much,” is off of a new project he’s working on to release later this year. Listen for that single on Bloomington-Normal’s #1 Country, B104.

What era of country music is your favorite?