Honky-tonk veteran Chuck Mead is debuting the latest taste of his forthcoming album, Close to Home, exclusively for readers of The Boot. Press play below to hear the new track, "My Baby's Holding It Down," which celebrates the feeling of being lucky enough to have a partner who holds down the homestead while he's out on the road.

"Many of us who are away from home a lot have a someone back home holding it down, if you're lucky," Mead says of the track, adding that an important component of that dynamic is the assurance that, one day soon, the two partners will be reunited. "The thing is, I always come back. And you have to make sure whomever is holding it down [knows] that you are coming back."

Musically, the track -- which Mead wrote with Paul Cebar -- offers a bit of variation among an already diverse collection of songs: ""My Baby's Holding It Down" is my attempt at getting a Charlie Rich-meets-the Staples sort of sound. It's probably, to me, the most departure from what I usually do musically on the whole album," Mead goes on to say.

Close to Home, an 11-track project that the singer crafted in Memphis, Tenn., at the legendary Sam Phillips Recording Studios, delves into the musical backdrop that the city has to offer, resulting in a project that the singer says is unlike anything he's ever made before.

"It's probably the least country record I've ever made," Mead says in a press release. "But at the same time, it's a really country record,"

The project is due for release on June 21. Visit ChuckMead.com for more details.

Listen to Chuck Mead's "My Baby's Holding It Down"

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