Ryan Hurd

Before launching his career as a performer in 2017, Ryan Hurd earned his reputation as a country songwriter, penning tunes that were recorded by Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts, Florida Georgia Line, and Blake Shelton. His compositions and his marriage to Maren Morris elevated his stardom prior to “To a T,” his first hit single, and he continued to release a series of EPs heading into the next decade, all setting up the 2021 release of Pelago, a melodic and varied full-length debut.
A native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Hurd relocated to Nashville to pursue his dream of breaking into the country music industry. He wound up working behind the scenes, earning a reputation as a songwriter, scoring his first big hit when Blake Shelton took “Lonely Tonight” to number one on Billboard’s Country Airplay charts in 2014. His work as a songwriter reaped personal dividends, too: he met Maren Morris when the two collaborated on a Tim McGraw song; they married in 2018.
Hurd used his songwriting success as a platform to launch a performing career. In 2015, he released the Panorama EP, which was enough to earn him some media attention. He landed a record contract with RCA Nashville in 2016 and the label released an eponymous EP in 2017, preceded by the single “We Do Us.”
“Love in a Bar” became Hurd’s first single to crack Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, reaching 50 in 2017. The following year, “To a T” climbed to 42 on Country Airplay and 40 on Billboard’s overall Country chart. “Her Name Was Summer” appeared in June 2019 followed by two EPs, Panorama and Platonic. Another EP, EOM, was anchored around his 2020 single “Every Other Memory.” Hurd and Morris teamed up for the duet “Chasing After You,” a single that climbed to number four Country Airplay early in 2021. “Chasing After You” was the first single from his debut album, Pelago, which appeared that October. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine