The first cut from the Davidson-Fresh collaboration, due later this year, points the way to a one-of-its-kind project that features rapper Mystikaland other unexpected artists from different genres. It’s an ambitious leap of faith, crystalizing his feelings about the universality of music that Davidson can’t wait for the Nashville community to hear. Davidson will release the project on his new label, Play It Again Records.

“I’m extremely excited to release this single, ‘Laid Back’,” expressed Davidson. “It’s music I’ve wanted to make for a long time and I’m glad that we were able to collaborate on this project with talented people who each bring something different to the table.”

Known as one of Nashville’s most adventurous songwriters behind the scenes on Music Row with 22 eclectic No. 1s and more than 300 recorded tracks, Davidson also is a recording artist and live performer at the front of the stage. The new release marks the next chapter in that aspect of his career and it’s bound to have Nashville talking.

Davidson met Fresh through BMI Atlanta Vice President of Writing/Publishing Catherine Brewton. The two bonded over their love of Southern music and conceived the new project as a way to show how well all aspects of it can blend hand in hand. It’s not the first time he’s put some zip into a country song with examples like Blake Shelton’s “Boys ‘Round Here” and Luke Bryan’s breakthrough “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” going to the top of the charts.

There’s nothing halfway about “Laid Back” as Davidson employees Fresh to the fullest of his abilities. The Louisiana native helped define an era as Cash Money Records’ in-house producer for more than a decade, helping Lil Wayne find his voice and the label rise to the top before leaving in 2005. He’s now signed to Def Jam South and has his ears on all aspects of what’s going on down in the Dirty South, even over on those dirt roads that country music’s fixated upon.

You can hear the push and pull of Davidson and Fresh’s different styles on “Laid Back,” a work hard-play hard song that equates smooth good times with the easy glide of a vintage Cadillac. After Davidson opens things up with a declaration about a day spent busting his butt so he can spend the night relaxing, Maggie Rose – an original signee to Davidson’s Play It Again Music Publishing house and a rising solo artist herself – joins in with a soaring verse. Then iconic rapper Big Boi, who once helped define the Dirty South with Andre 3000 in Outkast, blows things up with an off-the-cuff feature that sums up the song’s vibe and unifies the track in a quick run of bars.

The song, recently called “bizarre but catchy mash-up of Bruce Hornsby and Uncle Kracker” by Rolling Stone Country, is the first release from Davidson’s Play It Again Records, a natural extension of his Play It Again Music Publishing venture, launched in 2014. The two-time Academy of Country Music and BMI Songwriter of the Year and the five-time Country Music Association Triple Play Award winner is also a member of songwriting supergroup The Peach Pickers.

For more information about “Laid Back” visit:

www.dallasdavidson.com

About Play It Again Records: Play It Again Records is the latest visionary venture from hit singer-songwriter and producer Dallas Davidson. An extension of Play It Again Music Publishing, launched on Music Row in 2014, Play It Again Records will be the future home to Davidson's upcoming project and other releases as Davidson takes a more entrepreneurial role in the music business. Formed with manager and business partner Austin Marshall, Play It Again was established with songwriters Maggie Rose, Houston Phillips, Brian Kolb and Kyle Fishman, adding Trea Landon last year. Play It Again Records will have three projects released this month;  Rose just released the first installment of her two-volume EP, The Variety Show and The Morrison Brothers Band will release a project on April 29.

About Dallas Davidson: Dallas Davidson is a two-time winner of the Academy of Country Music and BMI Songwriter of the Year awards with 22 No. 1 hits, more than 300 tracks recorded and five Country Music Association Triple Play Awards for three No. 1s in a 12-month period over the last decade. He has evolved far beyond songwriting in his time in Nashville, however, and is now the center of an entrepreneurial hub that’s rewriting the rules on Music Row. President and CEO of Play It Again Music Publishing, Davidson formed the company in 2014 to take advantage of the knowledge he’d acquired over a decade as one of Nashville’s most successful craftsman. Davidson’s “I Don’t Dance” was nominated for 2015 CMA Single of the Year and his "Just A Kiss" was nominated 2012 ACM Song of the Year. He was also named the Nashville Songwriters Association International Songwriter of the Year in 2012. He’s the chairman of the Georgia Music Foundation and a member of The Peach Pickers trio with fellow songwriters and Georgians Ben Hayslip and Rhett Akins.