Maren Morris wrote “Hummingbird,” arguably the most tender song on her new Humble Quest album, the day she found out she was pregnant.
That was back in 2019. Its lyrics were written more around the idea of Maren’s potential future child; it would be months before she learned she was having a boy, or finally met her son, Hayes.
But flash-forward to when she recorded the song, and Hayes was not only born, he was also starting to say “mama.” She decided to include his voice on the track.
Maren explains how it all went down in a new interview with Vulture, revealing that she recorded part of her record at Sheryl Crow’s Nashville barn studio.
“I did bring Hayes one day when we were done recording to look at all the pianos, and there’s horses in that barn that he was obsessed with,” she recounts. “It was crazy to me: I was pregnant the day I wrote ‘Hummingbird,’ but when I started recording it, he was starting to talk. Him saying ‘Mama’ was right during that moment in time, so that felt really full-circle, too.”
She adds, “He’s the only feature on the project.”
Humble Quest comes out Friday.