Somebody's Smilin' On Me
Troy Coleman, Brett Warren, Brad Warren
I wrote with the Warren Brothers on the McGraw tour. We got some ideas down and let them sit through most of the summer and fall. Three days before tracking started on Loco Motive we put a rough demo together on this and took it by John's house. He freaked. This song is really important to me, I rewrote the last line of the second verse for my mother, who died in 2001. Tim McGraw and Big Kenny sing the chorus.
Do Your Thang
Troy Coleman, John Phillips, Jill Kinsey
John brought me this demo and it sounded like Jefferson Airplane. We kept a lot of Jill's vocals, and I loved the sound and guitar riffs. We had to rework a lot of stuff to make it work as a rap, but we were able to keep a lot more of the verses than I first thought.
Beast On The Mic
Troy Coleman, Adam Schoenfeld
Adam is the lead guitarist for Big & Rich and used to play lead for Kenny's band luvjOi. We were sitting around writing another song that Adam wanted to cut for a rock project he was putting together. I had the idea to write a really rocking and hicked-out song and he starts in with that lick. The Japanese says, literally, "All day long, all day long, the black American is coming to you." James Otto does the rock vocal.
Whoop Whoop
Troy Coleman, John Rich, Vicki McGehee
They've been doing this song at Mafia shows since the early days. John recorded a version of this song a long, long time ago for a solo album that never came out. It was just a demo. We kept the first verse like it was, I wrote a second verse and we put it on the record.
Automatic
Troy Coleman, Adam Schoenfeld, John Rich
That was written somewhere out west. We were on the bus and the air conditioning shut off. I said, "Why'd the AC just shut off?" Adam's like, "Dude, it's automatic. It comes on when it wants to." We just looked at each other like, "Ah-ha!" We got the original chorus and melody from that, and John added the other vocal part that helped it develop into what it is now.
Wrap Around The World
Troy Coleman/John Rich
This touches on my interest in foreign languages. I was watching a lot of pro wrestling between 1997 and 2000, and the story lines started to get kind of boring. One day I decided to quit watching wrestling and learn Mandarin Chinese. I turned off the TV, bought a book and started studying. The Chinese part of the song refers to the American from east Dallas going to the far east with the energy and force of a train and hoping to visit all the different portions of China. The German part says good evening to the ladies and gentlemen of Germany. The Japanese part is saying thank you to the people of Japan. The French part says let the good times roll.