COUNTY FAIR
(Richie McDonald/Robbie Cheuvront/Chris Waters)
Richie: We had a show coming up at a county fair in Valparaiso, IN and a girl in our fan club had emailed me and asked if I would ride the Tilt-A-Whirl with her before the show and we agreed to meet. I was walking down the midway with her, looking around thinking, ‘There’s nothing like a county fair--the smell of cotton candy, hot dogs, corn on the cob, the lights.’ I saw all these families, these moms and dads and kids having a great time. Robbie and Chris had come out on the road with us to write for this album and when I went back to the bus I told the guys, ‘We’ve got to write a song about a county fair.’
CLASS REUNION (THAT USED TO BE US)
(Richie McDonald/Frank Myers/Don Pfrimmer)
Richie: My wife was to her 20-year class reunion last June. She’s from Hugo, Okla., and was flying to Dallas and then drive three or four hours up to Hugo. I told her she should rent a Thunderbird convertible and when you get to the edge of town, crank the radio up with the top down and let people know you’re coming.’ Not long after that, I was writing with Frank Myers and Don Pfrimmer (“My Front Porch Looking In”) and I told them the story about her class reunion, and that’s where the idea came from.
LET’S BE US AGAIN
(Richie McDonald/Maribeth Derry/Tommy Lee James)
Richie: Relationships are like rollercoasters. There’s more ups than downs, but we do have our downs, and the guy is saying, ‘I know I love you, and I know you love me, and there’s nothing in the world that could happen that could change that, so I’m gonna stay here until we’re us again.’ I wrote this song with Maribeth Derry and Tommy Lee James and we wrote it in three hours. My wife and I have the best relationship, but on our 10th anniversary, we had a little argument. I had the demo of the song in my CD player, so I played it for her and afterwards she said ‘That was totally unfair. I said, ‘Hey, whatever it takes.’
THAT GETS ME
(Richie McDonald/Bob DiPiero/Tom Shapiro)
Richie: It’s basically this guy talking about some of the little things this lady does that she doesn’t even notice, that really gets to him like curling her hair with her fingers, or kicking off her shoes when they dance. It’s those little things that totally mean the world to him. That’s what gets him, and she doesn’t even know it.
WOMEN RULE THE WORLD
(Dean Sams/Brett James)
Dean: This was Brett’s idea. He said ya know, women rule the world. They give us just enough rope to hang ourselves. They don’t have to have the spotlight all the time, and things seem to work out the way they want them to most of the time. I’ve been with my wife 20 years, and trust me, she knows how to do that. The song wasn’t written in a tongue-in-check way. They are smarter than us. We were the pants but they picked them out.
WHAT I MISS THE MOST
(Michael Britt/Richie McDonald/Frank Myers)
Michael: We were on the road and Richie started playing this melody on the guitar. I asked him what it was, and he said it was something new he was working on. When we got home, he invited me to come along and write the song with him. The three of us wrote the first verse and then Frank came back with the second. It’s one of those songs that the chords are very haunting, kind of minor sounding, and the melody Richie has over the top soars. It’s a very moving song.