One of Nashville’s most dynamic new artists, Manny Blu, has released his new single, ‘Train,’ out today to stream/download worldwide. Bringing a new dimension and attitude to the genre, Manny’s “country punk” approach, mindset, and diverse sound is on display in the new track that serves as a lyrical plea to a significant other to “hit me like a train” with love and affection. Listen to ‘Train’ here.
Produced by Aaron Eshuis (Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd, Cole Swindell) and co-written by hit songwriters Jessi Alexander (Miley Cyrus, Lee Brice, Blake Shelton), Ryan Beaver (Ryan Hurd, Steve Moakle, HARDY), and JT Harding (Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton), the new single grabs the attention almost instantly and makes listeners feel alive with an up-tempo, energetic arrangement.
Commenting on the track, Manny said: “’Train’ was the perfect song to put out once I announced that 2021 is the birth year of “Country Punk.” Not every song I put out will have a super present punk influence, but ‘Train’ does. It is Country Punk and it’s exactly how I wanted to start off the very busy year of releases we have planned!”
With momentum building, ‘Train’ marks Manny’s first single of 2021 and offers a hint of what is to come from Manny’s upcoming EP, to be released later this year. More details surrounding the EP release are forthcoming. A music video for ‘Train’ is also set for release on April 23rd.
This year, the former hockey player, MMA fighter, and native Canadian launched his live performance series Live & Turned Up on his Official YouTube page HERE. Known for his dynamic live performances, Manny and his band wanted to recreate the energy of a live show in each Live & Turned Up release, saying, “I wanted to lean into alternative content, and I thought playing our live versions of songs and recording them was a fun way to do that…we wanted to showcase how exciting our live show is.” In the series, Manny exemplified what ‘country punk’ truly is, which he explains to be “country music to the core, with a punk attitude.”
To date, Manny and his band have released six individual song performances in the Live And Turned Up series, including their version of The Pretty Reckless’s ‘Death By Rock and Roll,’ ‘BLOW,’ originally performed by Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Chris Stapleton; and Manny Blu originals, ‘’95,’ ‘Old Money,’ and ‘Burnout Town’ from Blu’s 2020 sophomore EP, and ‘X on My Heart’ from 2019’s Like It Like That EP. All performances were filmed in East Nashville’s H.O.M.E. – a non-profit community for music creators. Another volume of Live & Turned Up performances will be released in additional installments throughout the year. Follow along here: https://www.youtube.com/
Manny continues to develop and mould his unique vibe to country music – a sound he introduced with his debut EP Leave It Like It Is (2019), followed by his 2020 release, New Ink. Despite the difficulties that all artists had to face in the past year, 2020 was a landmark year for Manny Blu as he continued to make himself seen in the country music community. The promising artist expanded his team to an international level through added representation in the US and the UK, successfully releasing his EP New Ink filled with major songwriters like Josh Osborne, Ross Copperman, and Rhett Akins, and finding success with his debut release from that project ‘Born to Ride,’ reaching over 360K views on YouTube and surpassing over 1M streams worldwide.
