Luke Combs teamed up with bluegrass artist, Billy Strings, and surprised fans with a timely new song. “The Great Divide” is available now, February 1st on all streaming platforms. Take a look below as we dig a little deeper into the new track. 

Upon surprise releasing the new song, Combs posted an Instagram video earlier today about his thoughts on the track and the story behind it. Written by Combs, along with Billy Strings and their friend Wyatt Durrette back in June of 2020, Combs tells fans that the “The Great Divide” was intended to be on a Bluegrass album that he was working on. However, as plans change, Combs shifted his focus to his third album instead and says the bluegrass project has been put on pause for now.

Combs shares, “I thought now was a good time to put this song out with everything that has been and is going on in the world. It isn’t meant to be political or try and tell you what to think or believe; that’s not my job. It’s just me saying how I felt when I wrote it and I wanted y’all to hear it.”

Strings adds, “This song is our interpretation of the conflicts and tension we had been witnessing/experiencing around the time we wrote it. We wanted to shine a little light on the situation and offer a bit of hope during what has been a tough time for many.”

Quite literally, this song suggests the great divide that exists within our country right now.

“We’re all so far, so far apart now / It’s as deep as it is wide / We’re about to fall apart now / If we can’t reach the other side / We gotta find a way across the great divide”

“The Great Divide” opens with a very telling image of a reality we are all living. Even if we’re not the ones in the fight or the ones experiencing it every day, we are seeing it every time we go on our phones or turn on our TV’s. It’s likely we don’t go long without a conversation coming up either. It is around all of us and has been for a while now.

“We’re striking matches on the TV / Setting fires on our phones / Bearing crosses we believe in dying on / tempers flare, the flame flies higher / as we soar closer towards the sun / But I like to think too much damage ain’t been done”

As real and to the point as this song is, it still manages to offer a sense of hope among its saddening truth, and remind us that a different ending is possible. A hope that one day we will make our way across this great divide and a reminder that people who were strangers and people who are different and believe in different things have loved each other before.

“Sometimes it seems that our convictions / Side of the fence that we sand on / Makes us all too damn different to get along / But I’ve seen strangers love each other / Like a mother does her son / What we see ain’t only all that’s going on”

Combs has already received widespread attention for another song he wrote and released last summer: “Six Feet Apart”, which was in response to the state of the world in relation to the pandemic. The track was among six new songs included on Combs What You See Ain’t Always What You Get Deluxe Album, released in October of 2020, including “Forever After All”, which debuted at No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 Chart – the highest entrance ever for a male country solo artist. Combs also received his tenth-consecutive No. 1 single at country radio, a first on Billboard Country Airplay chart. Additionally, the country superstar made history as the first artist ever to have their first two solo studio albums spend 25 weeks or more at No.1 on Billboard Top Country Albums Chart – breaking Taylor Swift’s previous record at 24 weeks.

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“The Great Divide” is now available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released music here on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.