Bobby Duncan Releases New Single 'Maybe This Time'

The songs on Bobby Duncan's new album, Maybe This Time, certainly did take their time - some were written as far back as 2010, on the heels of his third studio album's release. He never really expected so much time would pass before its follow-up, but creative endeavors rarely follow a timeline.

Centering around what it means to find your place in life, to dig your heels into where you've landed and savor the sweet moments - while still asking questions and feeling life's insecurities from time to time - the 10-song collection will be released on April 1, 2022. The album's title track is out now.

"I've been a seeker, I've battled faith, I've searched for answers and been lost along the way," he sings on the track. It's easy to find familiarity in such a statement, as well as the following line: "And I've been a gambler, but I've never put it all on the line. I've spent my life holding back, but maybe this time..."

"This album is definitely the most honest and personal collection of songs I've released so far," Duncan says. "It's a story about figuring it out. Failing, dusting yourself off, and trying again, all the while learning to be okay if you fail more. I knew early on that it would take time to gather enough songs to tell this story. I was growing in real-time, and you can't speed up life's lessons."

Duncan's last full-length album, 2012's Forever From Here, marked a shift for the singer-songwriter, who at the time was playing 200 shows a year and had achieved some radio success in his home state of Texas. He could sense a change in the music he was making and in himself - moving further away from the early ambitions of his youth towards a more comprehensive view of a full-time music career, with songs that had more of a pop influence than his previous work. The road also felt tiring - he and his wife were living together but not yet married, and life was beginning to take on a new structure.

"I was enjoying a part of life I hadn't experienced before," he says. "That's when I started writing the songs that became this album. We got married, started having kids, and the years picked up pace. It's hard to believe it's been nine years between studio albums, and while I didn't intend on a gap that large, I'm thankful for that time."

A constant through-line of Maybe This Time is Duncan's transition into fatherhood. He and his wife received a crash course in their newest phase of life when they welcomed twins to their family a few years back.

The album also finds Duncan co-writing with Walt Wilkins; those well-versed in the music scene in Texas are likely more than familiar with the name, as many a writer counts him as a songwriting hero and one of the scene's mainstay talents - known as much for his way with words as the wisdom found within them. In addition to producing two of Duncan's earlier albums, he also helped him hone his earlier writing.

"Sometimes you got to take the long road, sometimes fast, sometimes slow," he sings in the album's final track, an apt closing note for a collection that took its time, that lives in the questions that can still exist inside contentment."

"Sometimes you lead, sometimes you have to follow. Sometimes it's best to not know which way to go." It's a journey, after all, and Maybe This Time captures all the twists and turns that make life worth living.

Listen to the new single here:

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