Charles Esten gifted fans with more new music this month, releasing his newest song “Down The Road,” featuring Eric Paslay.
A never-give-up country rocker, “Down The Road” finds Esten and Paslay encouraging each other and listeners not to give up on their dreams.
“It’s a song that takes on the notion that sometimes when things are going poorly [we think] they’re going to stay that way and that we know what’s coming,” Esten told PEOPLE of the track, which he wrote with Paslay and Dylan Altman.
He continued to tell the outlet, “It’s very easy to think of ourselves as being at the end of our own sad movie when things are going that poorly for us. This song just says, maybe you don’t know what’s down the road. Maybe there’s things you could never possibly imagine. And that’s how I feel. I do. I always try to remind myself that this too shall pass.”
Debut Album, Love Ain’t Pretty
“Down The Road” is from Esten’s upcoming independent debut album, Love Ain’t Pretty, which will be released on January 26. Esten has already shared “One Good Move,” “A Little Right Now,” and “In A Bar Somewhere” from the collection.
Esten told PEOPLE that all the songs on Love Ain’t Pretty “have a bit of that bluesy country soul in them,” combining his love of classic country stars like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and rockers like Bruce Springsteen.
“I think that’s naturally a part of who I am as an artist, what I would want to bring to it is feeling that emotion,” he said. “There’s definitely country all over it, like ‘In a Bar Somewhere.’ But there’s definitely a range of styles as well as a range of emotions and themes.”
Listen To Charles Esten’s New Song “Down The Road” Featuring Eric Paslay Below
Reuniting With Cast Of Nashville For Tour
Esten, who currently stars as Ward Cameron on Netflix’s Outer Banks, began releasing music in 2016, inspired by his role as Deacon Claybourne on the country soap Nashville.
The Pennsylvania native released 54 singles in 54 weeks, setting a Guinness World Record for the title of “the most consecutive weeks to release an original digital single by a music act.” He began work on an album after a break, ultimately creating what would become Love Ain’t Pretty.
“They call this a 10-year town, Nashville, and it’s definitely been slightly over 10 years since I got here to shoot the show Nashville,” Esten noted. “And it’s hard to overstate the impact it has had on my life.”
“Music was always my first love and I never stopped playing it and I never stopped writing it,” he added. “But the character of Deacon Claybourne opened up this opportunity to jump back in and I did fully and instantly.”
The Nashville Reunion Tour Begins In September 2023
The cast of Nashville is currently prepping for their Reunion Tour, which will feature Esten, Sam Palladio, Jonathan Jackson and Clare Bowen. Beginning in September in Chicago for a show that will also feature Chris Carmack, the trek will hit Music City before crossing the pond for a slate of dates in the U.K. through October.
“It’s been so long since we’ve done this together that we’re really looking to fulfill for ourselves, what we’re fulfilling for [fans], which is, ‘Let’s go back, let’s go sit in that beautiful car we got to drive around called Nashville,’” Esten said, adding, “This music is all so meaningful to us, and what we found over the years is that for people that love Nashville, that’s true for them as well.”
