Maren Morris is “still in tears” after performing her final show on The Chicks’ headlining tour, and her first show since releasing the first impression of her next era of music. Morris posted a video on her social media channels as she delivered a rendition of “The Tree,” one of two tracks she released on Friday (September 15).
Morris told a two-part story through the powerful ballads included on The Bridge, an EP that included “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here.” Morris said The Bridge “honors where I’ve been and but also feels like a forward step into the sun.” She described “The Tree” as a song “about a toxic ‘family tree’ burning itself to the ground. Halfway through, I realize it’s burning itself down without any of my help,“ and allows herself to move forward elsewhere. “Get the Hell Out of Here” is “the aftermath of the tree burning. …I relinquish control of trying to change everyone’s mind or bad faith behavior and focus on my own power going forward.”
Morris said she was “still in tears” after playing her final show with The Chicks, taking place in Toronto in Ontario, Canada. “The timing of releasing ‘The Tree’ while opening for my heroes who walked that walk before me was so fortuitous I could scream. Thank you for already screaming all the words,” the award-winning singer-songwriter shared in a caption on Instagram.
Morris revealed in a Q&A with the Los Angeles Times that she would leave the country music genre after feeling “very, very distanced” from it, particularly during continued culture wars. She said, in part, that she “had to take a step back. …Obviously, being one of the few women that had any success on country radio, everything you do is looked at under a microscope. You’re scrutinized more than your male peers, even when you’re doing well. So I’ve had to clear all of that out of my head this year and just write songs. A lot of the drama within the community, I’ve chosen to step outside out of it.”