The first part of Thomas Rhett's new album, Country Again (Side A) has officially arrived, and the country star celebrated during his exclusive iHeartCountry Album Release Party as he performed some of the new songs live for the first time.

Country Again (Side A) follows 2019's Center Point Road and includes Rhett's recently-released title track and other previously-released songs like "Growing Up" and "Want It Again."

During his iHeartCountry Album Release Party, hosted by Bobby Bones, TR performed songs from his new album including "What's Your Country Song," "Country Again," "To The Guys That Date My Girls," "Sixteen" and "Growing Up." Rhett, alongside Bones, also listened along to some of the new tracks like "Where We Grew Up," the tear-jerking "Heaven Right Now," "More Time Fishin," "Blame It On A Back Road," "Put It On Ice" and "Ya Heard."

Rhett also talked about Country Again (Side A) during a special Q&A, and even answered some questions from fans who joined him virtually.

Country Again (Side A) is only half of the new music that Thomas has worked on over the last few years and so because he ended up with over 20 songs, he decided to break it up into two parts based on feedback he got from his younger brother. He explained:

"I have a 15 year old brother and I was talking to him and I was like, if I were to put 25 songs on the record, how far do you think you could make it before you got bored? And he said, 'I think I could make it nine in.' And so that's what made me want to split it up a little bit. And, there was just something about it that, there's so much music and so much story content on this record that I felt like just putting 11 out first and then waiting a few months and putting the second side out. I just felt like it was a lot easier to digest 11 at a time rather than 25 total. So, both ways work, obviously, but that's just something that I kind of felt led to do."

Rhett also added that he is excited to share Side B, which he teased may be out by this October, because it's "some of [his] favorite songs [he's] ever written."

TR calls Country Again "the most Thomas Rhett to the core album that [he's] ever made." He recalled, "There was no chasing a vibe, there was no chasing another sound. It was just like, this is just what naturally fell out. And it kind of started to fall out of me at the beginning of 2019, and it was kind of weird for a minute for my co-writers cause we've always written a lot more progressive type songs, and done a lot of a whole different kind of genres on a record. And, Side B does have a few different progressive things on there, but for the most part, man, I just wanted to sit down and tell some really honest stories. And that's where a lot of these songs came from. So, for me, even though this feels like going backwards, I think going back to how I originally started in this career is progressive for me. So it felt very fresh to do that."

Dave Schaefer