Last year Tim turned in Emotional Traffic to his label, Curb records, and now Curb is alleging that he turned it in too close to the completion of Southern Voice (his 2009) album. An attorney for Curb says the songs were not "topical and new" as a result of his contract stipulation.
Tim's spokesperson responded to AOL, "Tim McGraw delivered his new album, Emotional Traffic, to Curb in the fall of 2010. The label is holding the album hostage from country music fans in an attempt to force Tim McGraw to serve perpetually under a contract that he has already fully and faithfully completed."
Hmmmm - sounds very weird to me. Seems many artists crank albums out year after year, plus I know that some have tons of songs they've written just sitting waiting to be recorded. And some could argue that their term "topical and new" is ambiguous.
It sounds like Curb is worried that Tim will be moving on from their label, causing them to take a huge financial hit, when he has fulfilled his contract and they are trying very hard to stall that. It is all the rage now for big artists to leave their long established label for a new one. (And that is something that I think labels need to seriously look at, figure out why, and change their business model. There has to be a reason that their established artists are looking for fresh waters.)
I think it's a safe bet that whenever they release this album, Tim will be done with Curb records and moving on to another label.