Though Gabby Barrett is still riding high on the success of her debut album, Goldmine, she is already thinking ahead to her next project, and is using her role as mother for inspiration.
Barrett and her husband Cade Foehner, who met as contestants on season 16 of American Idol, wed in 2019 and welcomed their first child, daughter Baylah May, in Jan. 2021. Barrett says that as a mother, her daughter is at the forefront of her mind with every decision she makes, including musically. “Motherhood has definitely changed everything in so many different ways, in the best ways. I have her in mind when I do anything now,” Barrett explains to Sounds Like Nashville and other media. “What she’s doing, you’re always thinking about them.”
As the powerhouse singer traversed across the country with Thomas Rhett on his 2021 Center Point Road Tour, she had Foehner, who plays guitar in her band, and the baby in tow. And while the hit maker is in the early stages of writing for her second album, she hints that motherhood is a theme that arises in the music. “We are in the process of writing for album No. 2, so you can definitely expect a baby song on that album,” she confirms. “I don’t know exactly what this album’s going to be themed around, but we’ll see. It’s coming along.”
The highly anticipated sophomore project will follow Goldmine, which was released in 2020 and features Barrett’s wildly popular debut single, “I Hope,” which topped the country charts and became a crossover success with a pop remix featuring Charlie Puth that ascended into the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart. Her follow up single, “The Good Ones,” became her second consecutive No. 1 hit on country radio and is nominated for Single of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2021 CMA Awards. The album’s third single, “Footprints on the Moon,” is currently climbing the charts.