Maren Morris' 'Dreamsicle' album invites healing as she embraces her new life

NEW YORK (AP) — When country star Maren Morris would voice support for the LBGTQ community, including publicly clashing with Jason Aldean’s wife over gender-affirming care for transgender youth, she thought she was doing it as an ally. She didn’t realize it at the time, but she was also speaking up for herself, too.

“I just maybe, internally, hadn’t had the bravery to go there in myself, and say the words out loud,” said Morris, who recently came out as bisexual. “When you spend the majority of your life in straight relationships and you haven’t explored that part of yourself … is now the right time for me to tell everyone while I’m married that like, ’Hi, I’m also attracted to women?’”

The Grammy winner, who's also stood in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter social justice movement and immigrants, has experienced drastic life changes throughout the past year, including a divorce with fellow singer-songwriter Ryan Hurd. These learning curves shaped “Dreamsicle,” her fourth studio album, out now.

“There’s a freedom that I’ve found in this album that’s a new version of what I thought I had,” Morris explained. “It’s just more wise and lived-in. And maybe part of that’s just like being in your 30s — you just don’t care as much.”

Following 2022’s “Humble Quest,” the 35-year-old singer-songwriter crafted 14 tracks filled with an eclectic, yet cohesive mix of traditional country, pop, soft-rock and dreamy bluegrass vibes. It continues the free-flowing, unconfined mix of sounds the “The Bones” singer is known for. Production includes superstar pop producer Jack Antonoff, John Ryan, Laura Veltz and The Monsters & Strangerz production team, with Morris credited as a writer on every song.

“I was writing all through all of those personal losses and evolutions. … I was really just avoiding going home, and I would stay in my sessions late, and also write on days that I probably should have just taken a nap or gone to see my therapist,” Morris said. “There were moments where I’m singing on some of these songs where I don’t even remember doing the vocal because I was just in such a state of loss and grief.”

Standout moments include the beautiful Americana-esque “grand bouquet” where Morris sings, “been so busy praying for my grand bouquet/not noticing you gave me a new flower every day.” There are also her staple poppy songs like “cry in the car” that attempt to mask the pain and frustration of heartbreak behind upbeat tempos.

But it’s not all doom and gloom; “The Middle” vocalist explores new themes, like on the previously released singles “bed no breakfast,” and “push me over” which she wrote with the electro-pop band MUNA.

“I went on a date with a woman for the first time, and I was just like I want to write about this,” she said, noting she felt safe exploring the topic with the queer-identifying band.

While she says each song represents some facet of this new era, the title track provides the fullest picture.

“It was the first song for one of my albums that I wrote alone and I don’t often do that," said Morris, who added “Dreamsicle” came to her at one night as a 3 a.m. realization that change was necessary. "Everything that I thought was going to be permanent in my life, like in some form or fashion, either ended or evolved into something completely different.”

Morris is currently prepping for her global tour in July, with more than 40 dates mixing headlining shows and festival appearances.

Since coming out, she emphasizes she’s received an abundance of love throughout Nashville, and has been overwhelmed by the support in the country music space that some have criticized as intolerant.

More importantly, she hopes fans understand “Dreamsicle” is not a “divorce record,” but a celebratory album of healing.

“It deals with grief. It deals with the friends that helped patch you back together,” Morris said. “It’s important to show and to prove to myself that I can process and heal from this. … If I can do it, ... someone will hear it and feel like they can get through that day that they’re in.”

Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.

Maren Morris arrives at Variety's Power of Women on Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Maren Morris poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Gary Gerard Hamilton)

Maren Morris poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Gary Gerard Hamilton)

Maren Morris poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Gary Gerard Hamilton)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine traded deadly strikes overnight and on Saturday morning, killing 10 people and wounding several dozen more, officials on both sides said Saturday.

The attacks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Istanbul for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He will also meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians.

“We are working to strengthen our partnership to ensure the real protection of lives, advance stability, and guarantee security in Europe and the Middle East. Joint efforts always yield the best results,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the messaging app Telegram after arriving in Istanbul.

Russia fired 286 drones at Ukraine overnight, 260 of which were downed, the Ukrainian Air Force said in an online statement.

Five people — three women and two men — were killed in the city of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and 19 others were wounded, the head of the regional military administration Oleksandr Hanzha said. The attack damaged market stalls and a shop.

In the city of Sumy, not far from the border with Russia, a strike wounded 11 people, the National Police said. Residential areas were hit, and houses, cars and utility networks were damaged in the attack.

In the capital, Kyiv, a drone strike caused a fire on the first floor of a three-story office and warehouse building, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said. No casualties were reported.

In the partially occupied Donetsk region, a Russian drone strike hit a civilian car on the Kostyantynivka–Druzhkivka road on Saturday morning, killing one woman and wounding another, according to the head of the Kostyantynivka City Military Administration, Serhiy Horbunov.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Saturday that its forces fired “long-range air- and ground-based precision weapons, as well as strike drones” at unspecified “military-industrial and energy facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

Meanwhile, the Russian-installed head of the occupied Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, said Ukrainian forces hit railroad infrastructure in the region and private houses, killing a family of three — a couple and their 8-year-old child.

The Security Service of Ukraine, also known as the SBU, claimed it used drone strikes to halt production at a metallurgical plant in the Russian-occupied city of Alchevsk in the Luhansk region, most of which is controlled by the Russian forces.

The SBU said on its Facebook page that drone strikes damaged blast furnaces, key production workshops, distillation columns, gas pipelines and electrical substations that power the plant, which supplies Russia’s state tank and railroad car plant, Uralvagonzavod.

There was no immediate comment from Russian officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian military overnight shot down 85 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions, the annexed Crimea region and the Black Sea.

In Russia's Rostov region, on the border with Ukraine, one person was killed and four sustained injuries, according to the region's governor, Yuri Slyusar. The attack sparked a fire at a warehouse facility of an unspecified logistics company, and another fire on a dry-cargo vessel flying a foreign flag several kilometers from the shore, Slyusar said.

In the Samara region's city of Tolyatti, one person was wounded, Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. The roof of a residential building was damaged and windows were shattered in several apartments, he said.

In this image made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Saturday, April 4, 2026, a Russian T-72B3M tank fires towards Ukrainian position. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Saturday, April 4, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged following a Russian strike in Sumy, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)