Maddie Lenhart turns heartbreak into a series of questions on “Why in the World,” the cinematic country single released Aug. 21 as the title track and third preview of her forthcoming debut EP. Produced by Brad Hill, whose credits include Maren Morris and Brothers Osborne, the song pairs Lenhart with co-writers Jay Knowles and Jen Stegall.
The song starts with questions that have straightforward answers before gradually reaching the one Lenhart cannot solve. “Summers are hot / Winter is cold,” she sings, moving through the ordinary rules of life until the thought lands on the person she has lost. The shift gives the song its sting: the problem isn’t that she cannot understand the world, but that she cannot understand why the relationship ended.
“There’s so many questions / That I’ve just accepted / I’ll never have answers to,” she sings, before arriving at the song’s central question: why was the person she wanted most the one she had to lose? The musical arrangement brings together baritone guitar, steel guitar, fiddle and layered harmonies, balancing a polished country sound with enough space for Lenhart’s lyrics to remain front and center.
That emotional directness suits Lenhart’s songwriting. Raised in rural Virginia and now based in Nashville, she has accumulated more than 40 independent cuts and earned recognition through the AIMP Nashville Unsigned Songwriter Series, the American Songwriter Song Contest and Holler. Her recent “Newton’s First Law” also landed on the cover of Spotify’s Fresh Finds Country.
“Why in the World” leads into Lenhart’s six-song debut EP, due Oct. 2. She will also perform a writer’s round at Nashville’s Listening Room Cafe in support of the release.
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