A Place to Hang My Hat (Shawn Camp / Byron Hill / Brice Long)
"No doubt about it, this is a gospel song. As we were listening to the demo, and the first verse and chorus went by, and then they played the instrumental, Kyle liked it so much that he started getting afraid that the rest of it wouldn't be as good; he was saying, 'All right, now, bring it home! Don't let us down [laughs]!' I love this song too. It's country, but it's got a message: If you live to be a hundred that's still a pretty short life, compared to eternity. So why be any more miserable than you have to be? That sums it up: This world is just a place to hang my hat until I go home."
Right On Time (Al Anderson / Sharon Vaughn)
"I just love the feel of this song as well as what the words are saying, no doubt about that. 'It took a while to get here but I'm right on time': That kind walks the line between country and gospel. In fact, after we cut it both Kyle and I felt that we hadn't quite nailed it. So Kyle got Al Anderson, who is one of the writers, to come in and play the guitar part, just to get the right feel. It's written so well that we wanted to make sure we got it musically right too -- and that made the difference."
My Poor Old Heart (Shawn Camp / Gary Harrison)
"The lyrics are sad, but it's such a fun melody to sing. That puts me in mind of some of those great old George Jones records. No doubt, that's one reason why I'm drawn to this song, because of how much George influenced me as a singer, with those vocal licks that only he can do, to be honest. And I couldn't find any fault with the lyrics either. Kyle and I will sometimes rip a song to pieces, just to be sure I can be comfortable with what the words say. In some cases I'll take out or change a word or two, but this one didn't need any changes at all."
I'm Your Man (Randy Travis)
"I wrote this while I was on the road last year. My wife is usually at every date I do, but this time she couldn't be there, so I was sitting alone on the bus when this melody and these lyrics hit me. I don't know where they came from. It's nothing I read, saw, said, or heard, but the lines were coming to me faster than I could write them down. I just grabbed the guitar, a pencil, and some paper, and it was there, I think because I was missing my wife so bad. The words make me think about something Conway Twitty said: 'When I can find a song that says what a man can't actually say to a woman, I know I got something good.' That's how I feel about this one."
Train Long Gone (Dennis Linde)
"Kyle amazes me on this one. He's so good at putting all these details in there and mixing them just right. From the singer's standpoint, this song is a lot of fun. It almost sounds like everybody finished recording 'I'm Your Man,' and then they had a couple of drinks and just decided to tear it up on 'Train Long Gone,' like, 'Play everything you know how to play on this one, boys.'"
I Can See It In Your Eyes (Randy Travis / Matthew Hagee)
"I wrote this one with Pastor Matthew Hagee, whose father, Pastor John Hagee, has been a great teacher and pastors at the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. The Hagee family have become great friends, close as family to me and my wife in the past five years. Matt had written down a bunch of lyrics and had an idea of the melody in his mind, so while my wife and I were visiting, I got him to sing into a tape recorder. Then I sat down, put some chord changes on it, and played with the lyrics until I'd gotten it where I wanted it."
