Kelsea Ballerini Drops Short Film With 6 New Songs About Relationship Breakdown With Morgan Evans

Kelsea Ballerini is sharing her truth in her new EP, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, which dropped at midnight on Valentine's Day. Along with releasing the six-track EP, she released a short film that was written and directed by Ballerini herself.

On social media, Ballerini wrote, “Here’s my healing journey. Here’s my heart. Here’s my truth. I’ve never been this open, I’ve never been this bold, and I’ve never been this proud of my art. So with love and respect, I’m rolling up the welcome mat. Six song story and short film out now.”

The EP comes a little more than five months after Ballerini confirmed she and then-husband Morgan Evans were getting a divorce after nearly five years of marriage.

"I was writing by myself for most of the project, and it was nice to trust myself again. Most of them started with me and my guitar," Ballerini said in a statement. "The only way I've been able to handle my life since I was 12 was to write about it. Ironically, I started writing music because my parents got divorced; that was my therapy."

"Rolling Up The Welcome Mat was how I processed everything," she continued. "It's the way I got my feelings out of my body and heart and put them to music, which is the purest way I could've handled it."

The first track, Mountain With A View, includes lyrics that refer to the demise of a relationship after marriage.

"I'm wearing the ring still / But I think I'm lying / Sometimes you forget yours / I think we're done trying," Ballerini—who tied the knot with Evans when she was 24—sings. "I realise you loved me much more at 23 / I think that this is when it's over for me."

The other emotionally personal songs - broken up into chapters: Just Married, Penthouse, Interlude, Blindsided, and Leave Me Again - also explore the ups and downs involved in splitting up and serve as a deep dive into her feelings on life. 

Watch the short film below!

In September, Evans dropped Over For You in response to the divorce. The heart-wrenching, melancholy ballad peaked at #3 on the Countrytown Hot 50 Country Airplay Chart and finds him searching for the answers to questions he ponders his ex-relationship.

Evans sings, “How long have you been waiting to take our pictures down / How long have you been breaking, why am I just finding out / I would have searched the world all over for you / Took a flight through the night to be that shoulder for you / I would have let go if you wanted me to / How many times did you say ‘I love you’ when it wasn’t true.”

“I’m just wondering how long it’s been over for you / Was it something I was missing, or was it someone else? It kills me to know that this house ain’t a home / Maybe one day I’ll be okay but right now I don’t know / You used to tell me everything and that’s what hurts the most / It would be easier if I hated you, but I still miss the person that I thought I knew.”

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Keep up to date with Kelsea Ballerini on her Facebook page here.