8 CRAZY HOURS (IN THE STORY OF LOVE) (Leslie Satcher/Darrell Scott)
This is the kind of song that will change people's lives. Someone I work with heard that song and said, 'You know, sometimes I get in my car and just want to drive off to Florida and forget everything." This song is about someone feeling like that, about that moment where they feel like they can't deal with their life anymore. But they leave, and they immediately start to realize what they're leaving behind. They realize they don't want to give up. The lyrics say that it's OK to go away from your life for a minute, but the important things are back there waiting for you to return. I think it's the kind of song that will make everyone appreciate what they do have in life.
DOWN INTO THE MUDDY WATER (Dennis Linde)
The first time I heard this song, I fell in love with it before it was even half way over. It's so much fun to sing. It's got a groove I can really dig into, and I think it's one of the songs that allows me to get really dramatic and show that side of me. I knew before I heard it that it was going to go on the record. It's one of my favorite songs to sing live.
RIDE (Stephony Smith/Gary Lloyd)
My friend Stephony Smith, she's a big part of this album, and she wrote this song because she knows I love motorcycles. She told me she wrote a song for me about that. When she sang the first chorus, "You make me want to buy a big Harley/ Deck it out in steel and chrome," I flipped out. I knew I wanted that song by time she finished singing the first chorus. It ended up being the title track, which is so great.
TIME MACHINE (Doug Johnson)
I have a friend who's part of this group of music publishers called Chicks with Hits. They were sending me a lot of great songs, and this is one of them. As soon as I heard this one, I was like, "Oh man, that's so cool." It's probably the most rocking song on the album. It's edgy, and that's what I was looking for. It's the perfect song for me because it's got a back roads feel but it really has a lot of kick to it.
I'M GOING BACK (Bill Kenner/Pat McLaughlin)
We needed a goodtime party song on the album, one where you can roll down the windows and feel good and not have to think too much. When I heard this song, I immediately loved the groove, it's so infectious. I loved the idea of it too - it's got a lot of attitude. The woman is saying she's not going to take being treated wrong, and she's going back home where the men know how to treat a girl with respect. It always gets the crowd going, they really love this song live.
FEAR OF FLYING (Hillery Lindsey)
I got a bad spell of allergies as we were finishing recording. I was sounding really raspy. Buddy Cannon told the record label to send me to Florida for a week so I could get rid of the allergies. He wanted me to just go rest. So I packed up and went to stay with friends at Rosemary Beach.
While I was there, I got a call from the record label. They had a song that had already had some interest from Faith Hill and Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood. They overnighted the song to me. As soon as I heard it, I said, "This song is huge." It was perfect for me; it fits my life and my philosophy so perfectly.
But we'd already had enough songs. We would have to drop one, and I was so close to all those songs. I didn't want to cut one of them. So I called and said, I love it, but I've got enough songs. Then as soon as I hung up, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I cried like a baby. So I called the label back and said, "I can't help it, I love this song, let's cut it."
Now I can't imagine this album without it. It's definitely one of my favorite songs on the album.
