Mickey Guyton's 'House On Fire' highlights a resilient star growing in country freedom

Four-time Grammy-nominated country star Mickey Guyton is undaunted by many things.

The Texas native's 3-year-old son Grayson is not among them.

Ensuring he woke up, got dressed and arrived at day care — this after the artist herself prepared for a full day in Music City amid her first-ever headlining tour of intimate club dates across North America supporting her latest album "House on Fire" — put her a bit behind schedule in arriving at Universal Music Group's downtown Nashville offices to sit down with The Tennessean.

However, if you've been following along for the last several years, seeming simultaneously late but miraculously still on time is the easiest way to define the success that's arrived in her decadelong mainstream country career.

Artistic freedom beyond 'formulas'

Guyton signed to Capitol Nashville in 2011 and endured the hardships of navigating the largely unprecedented space of a Black woman signed to a mainstream country label. Ultimately, Guyton emerged as an artist slowly growing comfortable in embracing her identities as a Black woman, country artist, mother and wife.

Her music is at the core of a Venn diagram of Kelly Clarkson, Faith Hill, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton and Carrie Underwood. "House on Fire" is country and pop, playing within a timeless tradition while embracing everything from multi-octave gospel runs to the radio-friendly pop of Parton's goddaughter Miley Cyrus.

"Developing the artistic freedom to be me instead of fitting into whatever formulas people feel are successful in country music has allowed who I am and what I love to finally exist entirely in an album," says Guyton with a beaming smile.

'Intentional, direct and on-the-nose' songwriting

Guyton has been defined by songs like "Black Like Me," "Love My Hair," "Remember Her Name" and "What Are You Gonna Tell Her," and she's keen to share that she's also been channeling tender empathy and big '90s and 2000s pop vocals of late.

Her work with frequent co-writer Karen Kosowski feels expanded in "House on Fire" though songs like "Here With You" and "In Between." She's also tapped chart-topping singer-songwriter Tyler Hubbard as a collaborator. His work on the Kane Brown collaboration "Nothing Compares To You" and the bright pop anthem "My Kind of Country" offers significant power to Guyton's craft.

Being as "intentional, direct and on-the-nose" as Taylor Swift, SZA or "Nothing Compares To You" co-writer Bebe Rexha has inspired a more conversational tone in Guyton's work.

The album's title, "House On Fire, " offers an evolution of Maren Morris' 2019 hit "The Bones," with lyrics like the "house don't fall when the bones are good."

"If I set the bones of the foundation of our love on fire, could he still love me?" Guyton told CBS This Morning about the title.

"That man, my husband (Grant Savoy), is solid," Guyton tells The Tennessean.

Success forged through resiliency and surviving fear

Happiness and mental health are at the forefront of Guyton's life — moreso than her art. In a September appearance on the national Breakfast Club radio program, Guyton tearfully revealed she went into early labor due to the stress of the backlash she received online for calling out Morgan Wallen for his infamous use of a racial slur in February 2021.

"Over the past two and a half years, I've learned that maintaining your mental health enables your artistic development," Guyton tells The Tennessean.

She said her debut album, 2021's "Remember Her Name," was as much an artistic statement as it was a referendum on the world around her.

"I was an unintentional activist who unexpectedly became an advocate for change, which came at a price," Guyton says. "However, the rewards from my years of hard work and from my resiliency ... have created freedom from ... a bubble born of fear."

Fear is a double-edged sword in her case. From the industry and label side, it's fear of navigating the unprecedented lane of what sustainable artistry for Black women looks like in country's long white male-dominated mainstream. From Guyton's side, it's the fear of suddenly embracing an unconventional road to acclaim — seemingly without the Nashville industry machine in her corner.

Guyton's success ultimately shifts the paradigm of her career and life — and thus, likely the careers of other Black women who aim to follow in her footsteps.

"After a few years of being in some of the biggest rooms with some of the biggest stars in the world, everything that we were all worried about for so long seems so small," Guyton says. "It turns out that our shared humanity and lives are bigger than stardom."

'Make 'Em Like You'

Motherhood was a life-changing experience for Guyton.

On the track "Scary Love," she sings, "When a baby is born is when a mother is born, too."

She cites the birth of her son, Grayson, as a "supernatural" experience.

On "Make 'Em Like You," Guyton says a precocious infant inspired the songwriting process as much as the song's co-writers Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk.

"As a wife in love and the mother of a future man, I am anxiously overwhelmed with hope, every day, that my son will be just like the man I love. It's a heavy thought, almost Biblical," says Guyton.

'Good, genuine and human connection'

"This album is 100% me," says Guyton, with the same glee as when she describes finally touring as a headlining act playing intimate rooms.

In three frenetic years while Guyton was advocating for social justice and becoming a mother, success arrived, highlighted by a nonstop stream of red carpets and talk show appearances.

Now, she's meeting fans who are diverse in terms of age, creed, gender and race, but unified by a love of her catalog of work.

"It's beautiful to hear them sing my songs back to me in a way I couldn't imagine that they knew and appreciated them," Guyton says. "I'm glad I'm comfortable with the beauty of the moments of sharing my songs and story with them."

When asked what she aspires to, she smiles warmly.

"I want another child and the opportunity to create and provide an even greater life for a growing family," she says. "Plus, for my fans, I want them to have more music from me or even a talk show so I can celebrate them and others. I've done some amazing things, but at the end of the day, more than anything, I value creating and having as much good, genuine and human connection as possible."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Mickey Guyton's 'House On Fire' highlights a resilient star growing in country freedom