"Hard Rain Don't Last": "Hard Rain" means a lot to me because down through the years my relationships have been pretty rocky. Sometimes I think you have to grow up before you realize it's okay to not always agree with your mate about everything. It's just important that you learn to settle differences without going to war. In my ears of growing up, somebody had to win the argument, and somebody had to lose. In the toughest of times, though -- and I've been down there where the only way to go is up -- you can rest assured your situation's not gonna last forever. If you want out of it, there's a way out. I wrote this song the day the big tornado hit Nashville; we finished it an hour or so before. It almost has a Marshall Tucker kind of overtone. We cut it pretty doggone country. It's got that banjo in there that just rocks through the whole thing.

"Too Many Pockets": One of my co-writers, Mr. Steve Leslie, came up with the title. It made me think of my childhood and when dad used to take us to this little store down the road called Hershel Frank's store. He'd take the tree of us boys inside and say, "You can each have one thing." I remember there were two kinds of chewing gum, Juicy Fruit and Double Mint, and I'd alternate between those two. I told Steve that I'd stopped at a convenience store to get some gum and gas recently, and there were so many kinds of chewing gum that I couldn't make a decision. I finally gave up, just got in my truck and went home without any gum. To me, that's what "Too Many Pockets" means. It's a song about a simple guy who loves simple things. I grew up in a place that runs a lot slower than Nashville, and in the midst of the mayhem, I kinda wish I could get back to that for a little while. We call this song a West Tennessee swing -- it kinda lopes along, with a little hop to it.

"Those Less Fortunate Than I": Every day is a gift and I think we owe it to ourselves to look at it that way and enjoy every minute. There's so much we take for granted. There's a lot of people that don't have what we have. This song talks about homeless people, people who are struggling just to survive. It says you shouldn't be afraid to help, to do something for someone less fortunate than yourself. Every day I try to say to myself, "I'm gonna give something to someone without asking for anything in return." Anything you do is better than just turning and looking the other way. The sad reality is that sometimes the reason we can't look those people in the eyes is because we wouldn't do anything to help them even if we could.