Mary Kutter kicked off 2026 with an unapologetic revenge anthem.

Kutter’s first-ever major-label single showcases the Kentucky-born artist’s sharp-witted storytelling in her lyrics, and blends a rock edge into her country sound. Kutter teamed up with John Frank and Tom Pino to write “Bed of Roses,” which was produced by Kurt Allison and Tully Kennedy. The cleverly-written, darkly-humorous single is reminiscent of The Chicks’ iconic ‘90s hit, “Goodbye Earl,” and other classics in the genre. Kutter — whose standout lyric is “that deadbeat of hers made a damn good fertilizer” — dropped “Bed of Roses” on February 13, and she isn’t slowing down.

“It's a story song, kind of if Alfred Hitchcock wrote a country song,” Kutter said when she met with iHeartCountry at the Country Music Association’s CMA Fest over the weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. “It's a story of a housewife who found a very creative way to take care of her rose garden as well as that thorn in her side,” she said, playfully referencing the unwanted partner in the story. “The day before I was going to write the song, I had gotten word — I hadn't signed my record deal yet or anything like that — but I had gotten a call from my manager that a person in town on the business side that I really respected but had never really known…I found out they weren't a huge fan of me as an artist, and they had, I'll just be point blank, they said I wasn't pretty enough to be an artist because I didn't have a good enough voice to be an artist.

“I remember I got that call and I was so upset,” Kutter reflected. “And I had bought tickets to go see AC/DC months before, and that's my favorite band. … I almost didn't go. I was just so just down about it.” Still, Kutter went to the concert at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, making her way to her seat in the “nosebleed of the nosebleed” section. “I had never felt so far away from the stage before. …Then the band started playing and it was so wild. Of course, I know most of their songs being such a big fan, but as soon as ‘Hell's Bells’ would start, or ‘Highway to Hell,’ or ‘Back in Black,’ the signature guitar lick would start or the drums, everyone in the stadium, they knew what that song was and it was a party up in the nosebleeds. …I thought to myself, ‘Man, that's just so powerful with music, what it does.’ But also it's so cool how immediately when the song starts, we know what's going on.”

Fueled by the energy of watching the legendary rockers take the stage, Kutter texted her two “Bed of Roses” co-writers with the goal of writing a song with “an iconic signature” start that everyone will know. The next morning, Kutter’s sadness had evolved “into a little bit of spice. I was feeling kind of spicy. …The song just kind of fell out that day.” And although it’s the story of a housewife who buried her husband in the backyard, the song also served as a moment for Kutter to decide “to bury the negative voices, put them in the backyard and just focus on why I started doing music in the first place, which was to write songs and have a good time doing it.” Like the racehorses in her home state of Kentucky, Kutter has “been in the process of just putting on the blinders and just focusing on what I can have control over.”

Kutter, who previously wrote songs for other artists (including Nate Smith and Bailey Zimmerman), finds herself immersed in storytelling. She beamed over her love for movies, TV shows and reading, “and it’s so cool that we [songwriters] get to condense sometimes a crazy cinematic story…into less than three minutes.” One way Kutter dives into storytelling projects is via her New Year’s resolution last year, which she’s maintained long-term. The singer-songwriter listens to one new album each day, often on her daily five-mile runs.

The key to a great storytelling song? For Kutter, it’s “focusing truly on the steak and not I'm burning the steak for the potatoes.” For example, in Kutter’s song “Devil’s Money,” she tells “a true story about my great-granddaddy, who was a bootlegger and man, I'll tell you what, he had a heck of a life. …Well, I remember just growing up hearing stories about this man, lots of layers to him and I knew I wanted to write a song about him. I remember sitting down and thinking, OK, we can't probably write a two and a half, three minute song with all of that. What's the steak for that?” Kutter said. “I think that is probably one of the most important parts of the storytelling song anyway: what's the point?”

“I'm just finishing up my first album, which is crazy. That's so wild to say out loud,” Kutter said. “Obviously, ‘Bed of Roses’ is the first song coming from that, but we're wrapping that puppy up right now. The final songs are currently in mix and all the levels right with the volume and all that. And so, we're going to be starting to release for that real soon, and I have a lot of shows that are coming up…and I'm just so excited to just get out on the road.

“I'm so grateful for our phones that it connects us with social media. I mean, it changed my life,” she continued.” It really did, but there's nothing like when you get up on stage and you see the eyeballs. You know what I'm saying? And you get to connect with music that way. I just feel so lucky. I'm pumped.”

CMA Fest, hailed the longest-running country festival in the world, ran from Thursday, June 4, through Sunday, June 7. Artists who took the main stage at Nissan Stadium included Bailey Zimmerman, Blake Shelton, The Band Perry, Brothers Osborne, Carly Pearce, Cody Johnson, Deana Carter, Ella Langley, Fetty Wap, Florida Georgia Line, Gretchen Wilson, HARDY, Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll, Jordan Davis, Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson, Luke Bryan, Michael McDonald, Molly Tuttle, The Red Clay Strays, Ricky Skaggs, Riley Green, Russell Dickerson, Shaboozey, Shay Morgan, Stephen Wilson Jr., Tim McGraw, Tucker Wetmore and Zach Top. Riley Green and Lara Spencer will host the televised special, which will air on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on Thursday, June 25. The show will be available to stream the following day on Hulu.