Maren Morris talks leaving country music, ushering in new chapter with 'The Bridge'

Maren Morris is starting fresh with a new two-track EP, "The Bridge."

The project features the break-free anthem "The Tree" and the ruminative "Get The Hell Out Of Here." Morris co-wrote both tracks with longtime collaborators Jimmy Robbins and Laura Veltz.

"As I've been working on my record nonstop this year, I realized these two songs deserved a moment on their own -- a story in their own right, written a day apart from each other -- a tender duo and bridge to my next album," Morris shared in a post detailing the EP on Instagram.

"I welcome, celebrate and grieve the changes that have happened these last few years and these songs say it better than I ever could in a caption or interview," she wrote.

The singer further explained the meaning behind the "The Tree" in an additional post on Instagram.

"This song evokes the pain of exhausting all your love and time for this person or 'entity' but realizing it's just a draining, transactional relationship that isn't nourishing in any healthy way," she wrote. "By the end of the song, I give myself permission to face the sun, plant new seeds where it's safer to grow and realize that sometimes there IS greener grass elsewhere."

The next track, "Get the Hell Out of Here" is "the aftermath" of "The Tree," Morris shared.

"This is a story of me feeling pulled in every direction, needing everyone else's understanding and acceptance but my own and how self-destructive that ultimately became," she wrote.

She went on to say that with the song, she was aiming to "relinquish control of trying to change everyone's mind or bad faith behavior and focus on my own power going forward."

The new EP marks the start of a new professional chapter for Morris.

With this release, the Grammy-winning artist has officially transitioned "to Columbia Records from the label's Nashville division" and is leaving country music, per an exclusive interview Morris gave the Los Angeles Times.

"I thought I'd like to burn it to the ground and start over," Morris told the outlet about country music. "But it's burning itself down without my help."

She further discussed how she felt using her platform to speak on issues she believes in had impacted her reputation in the country music realm.

"I didn't think of myself as a political artist. I just wrote songs about real life through a lens of deep respect for my country heroes," she told the outlet. "But the further you get into the country music business, that's when you start to see the cracks. And once you see it, you can't un-see it. So you start doing everything you can with the little power you have to make things better."

Morris, a longtime advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and increasing representation in the country music genre, went on to describe why she was vocal about her opinions, even when backlash ensued.

"...I don't think that biting the hand that fed you is a real thing. It's kind of a fallacy at this point, with all this fear-mongering about getting Dixie Chick-ed and whatnot," she said. "Country music is a business, but it gets sold, particularly to young writers and artists who come up within it, as almost a god. It kind of feels like indoctrination. If you truly love this type of music and you start to see problems arise, it needs to be criticized."

"Anything this popular should be scrutinized if we want to see progress," she told the Los Angeles Times.

Of her decision to steer away from the genre in the future, she said, "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."

Prior to "The Bridge," Morris' latest full-length album was 2022's "Humble Quest," which featured "Circles Around This Town" and "I Can't Love You Anymore."