It's just a few hours before he's due onstage as part of Thomas Rhett’s Very Hot Summer Tour, and Dustin Lynch has a huge smile on his face, thinking about what's next.

“We wrote a couple of songs today," the "Ridin’ Roads" hitmaker boasts to Taste of Country. "We are getting close to wrapping an album up so we are writing away, trying to fill in a few spaces."

A new Dustin Lynch is expected in 2020, he confirms, and it's the "most on-target" record he's ever done.

"I finally know what I want to say and I know who I am," he says. "I think we have been doing this long enough to know not only what I want to do and what I’m comfortable doing, but what I think our fans and country radio want from me and kind of who they want me to be in a way … which is weird."

Dustin Lynch Was a Bit of a Charmer in His Teen Years

He looks down for a second, his bright, toothy smile disappearing.

“As an artist, you want to take chances and we’ve done that in the past,” Lynch — who just celebrated his one-year anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member — admits, "But I think right now ... I guess I should just say that this record is totally on-brand."

There was a time when Lynch was really having trouble envisioning what this new record would ultimately sound and feel like. But now, he says, he's getting closer and closer to making his current vision of the project a reality.

"It can be a frustrating moment when you can’t see what an album should or is going to look like, or when you are like, 'Shoot, can I do this and heck I’m a decade in?!'" he wonders.

"I've learned not to force it. I think songs should be kind of effortless. I've been doing this long enough to know that you know what's a good song. You just know," he adds. "You keep writing and collaborating and listening and then you get one and you get some momentum."

Lynch says he has a ton of songwriting momentum right now, which ultimately leaves him with some hard decisions to make. "Now the hard part is the decision-making and what do we put out after 'Ridin' Roads,'" he says. "We have a lot of good options, and that’s always a good thing.”

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