Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Cassadee Pope released her first album in nearly five years Friday.

Though released independently, “stages” was sitting at number two on the iTunes country albums chart and number nine on the overall iTunes albums chart at noon Friday, 12 hours after its release.

And as news of the release spread, the album kept climbed. Twenty-four hours after its release it was number six on the overall albums chart and number one on the country chart.

“stages” marks Cassadee’s first full-length album since 2013’s “Frame By Frame,” which became one of the most successful post-Voice albums in the show’s history.

The new album features her superb new single, the country ballad “If My Heart Had a Heart,” plus her previous two singles, “Take You Home” and “One More Red Light.”

Among the best new tracks are “I’ve Been Good” and “Bring Me Down Town,” which Cassadee co-wrote.

In fact, Cassadee said the album is full of songs reflecting on the ups and downs of the last two years of her life. During that period, her long relationship with Rian Dawson ended and she embarked on a new one with actor-musician Sam Palladio of “Nashville” fame.

Cassadee, the Season 3 winner of The Voice, also said she enjoyed the freedom that comes with an independent release.

“It’s not been watered down at all,” she said of the music on the album in an interview with Pop Culture. “There’s not been any obstacles with, ‘Oh is that going to be allowed to be on the record?’ It’s my decision, so all of the songs on the record I’m very attached to.”

And that means plenty of pop and rock influences on the new country album from the former front woman for the pop punk band Hey Monday.

“I don’t want to ever lose the pop and rock thing that I have, and I can’t,” Pope told Pop Culture. “If I’m going to do music the way that I want, authentically, that’s going to be in there.”

Cassadee celebrated the release of “stages” with a Thursday night show at Ole Red, Blake Shelton’s club in Nashville.

Next week (Saturday, Feb 9), she’ll be performing at the Grand Ole Opry. And Cassadee has a busy 2019 in terms of touring.

She’ll be the headline artist for the CMT Next Women in Country Tour, which kicks off April 11 in Tampa Fla., and includes an April 27 stop at the U Street Music Hall in D.C. For a complete list of tour dates, head here. That tour will also feature Hannah Ellis and Clare Dunn.

Before that, Cassadee will open for Maren Morris on several dates of her Girl: The World Tour. You can check out those dates, which begin March 9 in Chicago, on Cassadee’s website.

Here’s the lyric video for “If My Heart Had a Heart,” which was co-written by Hannah Ellis.