ABC“What’s Your Country Song?” That’s the question Thomas Rhett asks in the lead single from his forthcoming fifth album. And the second generation singer/songwriter firmly believes you’ve got one — a song, that is.
“You know, bottom line is that everybody in the world has that certain song that takes them back to an awesome moment in time or to a hard moment in time,” TR tells ABC Audio. “And, you know, I’ve got several of ’em.”
“I listed a bunch of ’em in the song,” he continues, “whether it’s from the eighties or the nineties or two -thousands or now.”
Even more than that, Thomas Rhett sees the song as an expression of country music’s universal appeal.
“Wherever you live, everybody’s got some country inside of ’em and everybody’s got that one country song from their history that they go, ‘That’s my jam, that’s my anthem,'” he explains. “You know, songs they put on, you know, at football games around a bonfire, or a song that when they want to be thinking of the past a little bit, it’s a song they put on.”
“So it’s just a really big ode to country music,” he continues, “and some of the songs and artists that I love from my past and from my childhood.”
One of those artists TR loves from his childhood is his dad, of course, whom he namechecks in the second verse, giving a shoutout to Rhett Akins‘ huge hit from 1995, “That Ain’t My Truck.” Thomas Rhett’s dad also happens to be a co-writer on “What’s Your Country Song.”
Here’s a rundown of the other country classics TR name drops in “What’s Your Country Song,” along with the original singer and the year they were hits:
“Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound” — Hank Williams, Jr. (1979)
“Mama Tried” — Merle Haggard (1968)
“Cruise” — Florida Georgia Line (2012)
“Dixieland Delight” — Alabama (1983)
“Chattahoochee” — Alan Jackson (1993)
“Barefoot Blue Jean Night” — Jake Owen (2011)
“All My Exes Live in Texas” — George Strait (1987)
“I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” — Hank Williams (1949)
“Heartbroke” — Ricky Skaggs (1982)
“Friends in Low Places” — Garth Brooks (1990)
“Neon Moon” — Brooks & Dunn (1992)
“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” — Barbara Mandrell (1981)
“Strawberry Wine” — Deana Carter (1996)
“Family Tradition” — Hank Williams, Jr. (1979)
By Stephen Hubbard
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