Houston, She’s a Star: Megan Moroney Shines Bright on Her Sophomore Album, “Am I Okay?”

Photo by Cece Dawson.

Megan Moroney’s experience with today’s tumultuous dating scene might leave her checking her pulse and asking herself whether or not she’s okay, but her sophomore album, aptly entitled, “Am I Okay?” proves that she’s actually never been better.

“What I get to do every day is such a dream come true,” Moroney tells me. The country music star and Georgia native, who initially made a name for herself in 2022 with her SEC-themed love song, “Tennessee Orange,” shares that she wasn’t dreaming big when she first began to seriously pursue a career in music. “I just always wanted to write songs and perform for people – whether it was a room of a hundred or now, being able to open in stadiums with Kenney Chesney,” she says. “Obviously, the stadiums are preferred, but the core of what I love doing is the same, so I’m just really enjoying it and trying to take it one day at a time because there’s so much happening at all times.”

Never one to leave her eager fans hanging for long, Moroney followed the release of her crowd-favorite love song, her first number one at country radio, with her massively-popular debut album, “Lucky,” in 2023. “Lucky,” a powerhouse body of work featuring hits like “I’m Not Pretty,” “Georgia Girl,” and “Lucky,” turned up on best-of-the-year lists from Rolling Stone and Billboard to the New York Times and the Associated Press.

Now with more than a billion total global streams under her belt, Moroney is entering a new era with “Am I Okay?”

The fourteen-track record, released last week, is Moroney’s most introspective and poignant collection of songs yet. From the gut-wrenching “Heaven By Noon,” inspired by Moroney’s aunt’s last conversation with her uncle before he passed away on 9/11, to the wistful, Taylor Swift-esque “Noah,” each song has emotional depth. Even the more upbeat songs on the album tug at the heartstrings (see: “Hope You’re Happy,” “The Girls”).

Yet, through it all, one thing is made clear: Moroney is doing better than okay. Songs like “Am I Okay?,” “Third Time’s the Charm,” “No Caller ID,” “Indifferent,” and “Hope You’re Happy” weave a narrative of a woman who’s been repeatedly heartbroken by red flag men, but ultimately finds strength and peace in the emotional maturity she’s developed as a result of her romantic struggles.

“I was told over and over that my sophomore album would be the hardest to make, like ‘Good luck copying ‘Lucky,’” Moroney shares. “So before I started working on it, I was like, ‘Oh God, this is going to be so hard, how am I going to do this?’ And then I just started writing songs about my life, doing what I’ve always done, and then one day, I woke up and I had the fourteen songs, and I was like, ‘Oh, the album’s ready.’”

Moroney, ever the creative, already had the perfect color in mind to complement the vibe of her new album: royal blue. “Honestly, as soon as “Lucky” was over, I just had a gut feeling that the next era was going to be blue,” she says. “When I wrote the song “Miss Universe,” that to me was blue, and then I remember writing “No Caller ID,” and that was blue, so it just made sense. I think the shade of blue that I chose can be powerful and strong, but it can also be sad, and that’s kind of what this album is,” Moroney reflects.

Photo by Cece Dawson.

Best-known for her relatability, Moroney says that each song on the album is based on events that she’s gone through and feelings she’s experienced. On certain songs, like “Noah” and “Heaven By Noon,” Moroney expresses her feelings by relating to other people.

On “Noah,” a song aptly named after the much-loved character from Moroney’s favorite movie, “The Notebook,” Moroney longs for her high school boyfriend while in a new relationship, much like Allie longs for Noah just before she was about to marry someone else in the film.

“Heaven By Noon,” inspired by the last conversation between Moroney’s aunt and uncle, tells of the painful nostalgia and inadvertent regret that come with losing a loved one unexpectedly. Moroney’s uncle, who worked in the Twin Towers, was tragically killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. “He had even left his phone at home that day, and their last conversation happened to be about an oil change,” Moroney says. “Obviously, if you knew you were going to lose someone you loved, that’s probably not what you would want to say.”

“When I talked to you this mornin’/I said, ‘I’ll see you soon’/Would’ve said so much more if I only knew/That you'd be in Heaven by noon,” Moroney sings.

“I just hope it can get people through grief, and I hope it’s a comfort for them,” she says of the song that most listeners have, by now, deemed to be the most heartbreaking on the album. “Based on the TikTok comments already, I think people are really liking it, although it’s really sad. Everyone’s crying over it,” Moroney says, laughing. “So I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, I need to start handing out tissues with the album.’” (Probably wouldn’t be the worst idea, Meg!)

Although Moroney has branded herself an “emo cowgirl,” not all of the album’s songs are tear-jerkers. “In the back of my mind, I’m also thinking about creating a live show,” Moroney says of her creative process. “Because I’m on tour so much, I also wanted to have songs that are fun to sing live, so songs like “Indifferent,” “Am I Okay?,” “Miss Universe,” and “Man on the Moon” are ones that I think the album really needed.”

“‘Cause he wants me, and he needs space/Someone take this cowboy away/Somewhere far, let him fly/Out of this world and off my mind/Come on there's gotta be a rocket somewhere takin’ off soon/I think it’s time we put another man on the moon,” Moroney sings on the playful country-rock banger “Man on the Moon.”

The “Am I Okay?” album cover. Photo by Cece Dawson.

With a name like “Am I Okay?,” Moroney’s sophomore album wouldn’t be complete without a cover photo representative of the record’s title track. “The reason I’m checking my pulse on the cover art is because the first line of the album is ‘I check my pulse and my heart’s still beating,’ and then the back cover is symbolic of “Hell of a Show,” which is the last track,” she explains.

When prodded for details on her current love life, Moroney laughs. “So I’m like definitely dating my career right now,” she shares with an audible smile. “I don’t have time to get to know anyone – I mean I’m literally jam-packed. I have something to do like every single day until November, so that doesn’t really leave room for me to be with someone. Honestly, who would wanna date me right now?” she says, laughing. “My work-life balance is kind of non-existent, but I think that spending every ounce of free time with my friends is something that I’m really enjoying, and I feel like when the right person comes around, I’ll know it, and that hasn’t happened yet.”

This summer, Moroney is busy opening for Kenny Chesney on his “Sun Goes Down” Tour, which many fans have admittedly bought tickets for just to see Moroney perform, with some even going so far as to call it Moroney’s tour.

Needless to say, her hard work is paying off. Aside from penning a sentimental original song based on her childhood home for the upcoming “Twisters” movie (“Never Left Me”), Moroney has also made a fan out of Lana Del Rey. The pair initially met at Stagecoach earlier this year after Del Rey approached Moroney to compliment her music. “She’s literally like a Disney princess, like so pretty and soft spoken,” Moroney gushes. “She’s just so frickin’ cool.” The two then exchanged numbers and later joined forces to perform “Tennessee Orange” together at Hangout Music Festival in May – something Moroney calls an “iconic moment” that she’s still not over.

Although Moroney might cry herself to sleep some nights (see: “Hell of a Show”) and have the occasional urge or two to send a man to the moon, her innumerable accomplishments, along with her new album, prove that she’s never been better.