Dave Barnes is releasing a new album on Friday (March 18), and he's sharing one of the new tracks early exclusively with Taste of Country readers.

Carry On, San Vicente is a turn in a different direction for the singer-songwriter, who has enjoyed a long and critically acclaimed solo career in addition to writing hits for Tim McGraw, Billy Currington, Hunter Hayes and more. He was also nominated for Grammy and CMA Awards for Blake Shelton's recording of his song, "God Gave Me You." His new record was inspired in part by watching The History of the Eagles documentary.

"When I was writing this record, it was kind of a tip of the hat to the '70s Laurel Canyon scene, so I wanted to have a lot of imagery, because that's something I've always loved about those songs," Barnes tells Taste of Country. "You hear the song and you kind of feel like you're where they are."

After 15 years of making music professionally, Barnes wanted the new album to challenge himself and his listeners, but without departing so far from the script that it alienated his existing audience. He was careful in writing and recording the songs in a way that was different from previous efforts, relying on heavy imagery and employing some repeated ideas to tie the songs together.

"I think it's the most easy listening album I've ever made," he says. "That's really my hope with it, is that it's something you can put on and let it run its course, and then you go, 'Oh, I kinda want to hear that again.'"

"I'm blown away by the subliminal genius of the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne," he adds. "You don't realize how good the songs are, and then you find yourself a week later singing them, and then you sit and read the lyrics and you go, 'Oh, wow!' It's hard to do, because if you strain too hard at it, you start to see the seams a little bit. To me that's the most amazing part of what they did, to be able to make these timeless songs that at first really seem simple, and then you start to pull the layers back, and there's horsepower."

Though Barnes had most of the songs for Carry On, San Vicente carefully arranged before he went into the studio, "Glow Like the Moon" turned out significantly different than he had envisioned. He originally intended for the track to consist of just simple acoustic guitars and vocals — but his band members had other ideas.

"I went in thinking, 'This is how this needs to go,' and it was so funny, because my drummer just said, 'Let me just go do a pass.' And I was like, 'Here we go, this is how it begins,'" he says with a laugh. "So the bass player said, 'Well, if he's gonna go down, I'll go down with him,' and then at the end of it I was like, 'That is perfect. That's how it should be.' Not my vision for it, but that's what's so great about making music with people. I was gonna go for sort of a campfire vibe, and then once they started playing it, it turned into this kind of Steve Miller Band meets the Eagles meets my version of those things.But I really love it, I think it made it much more special."

Listen to the track below in this exclusive premiere, and visit Barnes' official website for more information regarding Carry On, San Vicente. The album is available for pre-order at iTunes.

Listen to Dave Barnes, "Glow Like the Moon"

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