SIZE MATTERS (SOMEDAY) *
BYRON HILL/MIKE DEKLE
Mike’s one of my favorite writers. He's had a cut on every
album. He’s an old country boy from Stone Mountain, GA
and he just writes things that are true. When you get
writers like Mike and Byron who can put lyrics to a melody,
things they’ve seen and done, those are the best songs.
The demo had a bluegrass sound and Buddy said he
wanted to kick up the drums and guitars. He thought it
could be a big, aggressive women’s anthem. I wasn’t sure,
but he said trust me. When I heard the first lick in the
studio, I was like, wow. That’s great.
FREEDOM FEELS LIKE LONELY **
TONY MARTIN/BILLY CURRINGTON/MARK NESLER
When we decided on the way this record would sound I
was a little scared. I’ve never done anything that’s got
rocking guitars and moves like this. It’s almost got a Gary
Allan feel where it stays with this solid, strong tempo. The
more we played with it the more open I felt. It’s the most
aggressive thing I’ve ever done and it came out great.
Byron really had a vision and saw ahead to how it could
sound. It scared me to death going in, but it came out as
one of my favorites.
TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF *
GARY HANNAN/JOHN WAYNE WIGGINS
You can’t miss this one. The title is deceiving in that it
makes you think this girl drinks a little bit and starts
stripping. Yeah, to a point, but she doesn’t mean to. She
just gets a little wild and leaves her coat in the bathroom,
loses a contact, takes her pantyhose off when she hears
Bon Jovi. It’s funny, but there’s no malice intended. It just
makes her a little crazy. And understandably so.
Everybody has a tequila story. Whether it’s you or
somebody you know.
TALK ME OUT OF TAMPA
CASEY BEATHARD/DON SAMPSON
That’s kind of a sleeper song. There are a couple on every
album that come out of the studio that nobody expected
to sound good. Clint Daniels sang the demo. Certain
people look for things in demos to prove to themselves
that the song’s a hit. I don’t think many people believed in
this song at the beginning. But I thought it had potential
to be great once you worked it over in the studio. Brent
agreed and it all came together. We put a high strung
guitar on there chinging in the background and the big
steel riding. We changed the choruses around. Things you
don't hear on the demo. That’s why I trust Brent so much.
You never would have thought it could have sounded like
that, but when it came out of the studio everybody
thought it could be a hit. Lyrically it’s pretty catchy. The
melody is more pop driven, but if you sing it right you can
reign all that back in.
THAT'S WHAT LOVE WILL GET YOU
CARSON CHAMBERLAIN/MARK D. SANDERS
When we first heard the demo, we all thought it was a
good song and decided to shift the production a bit to
make it fit our sound. We tried to leave the elements that
made the song cool and unique, but put our own touch on
it. Some of my favorite songs and artists have this kind of
easy groove to them. And it sounds so effortless, but
there's a lot more to sounding this relaxed than you think.
I’LL WAIT FOR YOU *
BILL ANDERSON/HARLEY ALLEN
One thing those guys can do is tear your heart out and
they do on this song. It’s like “The Baby” from Blake
Shelton. You know what’s coming. Halfway through the
song you know something’s going to happen. And it does.
But they put a twist on it not to make you cry, but to give
you a little hope. Love lasts a long time, even through
death. If you get the audience jazzed up and liking the
tempo things, and you sneak up on them with one of these
songs it just knocks the daylights out of them. Takes them
from one emotional extreme to another.
