Sam Hunt Samples Honky-Tonk Singer Webb Pierce on New Song “Hard to Forget”

Last month, Sam Hunt said that he wants his next album to “nod to tradition.” That’s something he does in a big way on his latest track, “Hard to Forget.”

The three-and-a-half-minute single opens with Hunt sampling the song “There Stands the Glass” from ’50s honky-tonk icon Webb Pierce. Rolling Stone raves that Hunt “deftly weaves the honky-tonk [classic] into an irresistible mash-up of traditional and current,” yet it also “feels like [an] obvious radio-friendly hit.” “Hard to Forget” was co-written with Luke Laird, Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne, and Ashley Gorley; it’s the fourth song Hunt has shared off his newly announced album Southside following “Kinfolks,” “Downtown’s Dead” and his 2017 smash “Body Like a Back Road.” Southside arrives on April 3.