Maren Morris reveals she is stepping away from country music

Maren Morris revealed Friday she is planning to leave the country music genre but will continue to make music.

Morris released two new tracks on Friday called “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here.” The new tracks are part of Morris’ EP called “The Bridge,” which she told the Los Angeles Times that the name is one of many metaphors as she started “imagining a path out of the world of country music.”

“These two songs are incredibly key to my next step because they express a very righteously angry and liberating phase of my life these last couple of years, but also how my navigation is finally pointing towards the future, whatever that may be or sound like. Honoring where I’ve been and what I’ve achieved in country music, but also freely moving forward,” Morris said in a statement Friday obtained by Variety.

Over a decade ago, Morris, 33, moved from Texas to Nashville for country music. She wrote songs for country artists like Tim McGraw, according to the newspaper. She later got a record deal of her own.

The reason she decided to leave the genre is “because of what she views as the country music industry’s unwillingness to honestly reckon with its history of racism and misogyny and to open its gates to more women and queer people and people of color,” the Times reported.

According to People magazine, Morris is not getting out of music altogether. She planning to release music on Columbia Records instead of Columbia Nashville. “The Bridge” EP marks her move to Columbia Records, the Times reported.

“I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” she says of country music, according to the newspaper. “But it’s burning itself down without my help.”

She is working on her next LP with producer Jack Antonoff who produced “Get the Hell Out of Here.” Antonoff has worked with Taylor Swift, Niall Horan and Zedd.

“I’ve kind of said everything I can say. I always thought I’d have to do middle fingers in the air jumping out of an airplane, but I’m trying to mature here and realize I can just walk away from the parts of this that no longer make me happy,” Morris told the Times, according to Variety.

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