Downtown

Album: Golden (2013)
Charted: 29
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Songfacts®:

  • The lead single from Lady A's fourth album was premiered on US radio on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2:00 pm central. The song represented a change of pace for the group, with a faster tempo and flirty vocals from Hillary Scott. "There's some sass to this track that makes it really fun to sing... it's definitely a roll down the windows and bob your head kind of thing," said Scott. The trio debuted the track live on January 28, 2013 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
  • Natalie Hemby, Luke Laird and Barry Dean wrote the song. Guitarist and backing vocalist Dave Haywood told Billboard magazine the band was surprised when the tune was first played to them. "It caught us off-guard when we heard it," he recalled. "It was one we didn't write, but when it was pitched to us, we thought, 'Whoa, we would have never done that.'"
  • Hillary Scott is proud of the female protagonist as she stands up for herself. "I liked the girl in the song is not afraid to just be like, 'What are you doing? Why aren't you doing this?'" she said. "Like being so forward and strong, just empowered, I think. I loved it. I love the voice that she has in the song."
  • The song was almost recorded by another Nashville star name. "It was one of those songs that we heard and fell in love with and then found out that someone else had that song on hold," Hillary Scott told the morning show team at Detroit's WYCD. "That someone was actually a girl by the name of Miranda Lambert, who I consider a good friend. She very very selflessly said 'let Lady A have it,' so we owe her a huge thank you."
  • The song reminds Hillary Scott of her college years at M.T.S.U. (Middle Tennessee State University). "I was in Murfreesboro at MTSU and Nashville is 40 miles away, like it's not that far," she said. "But, if you got asked on a date and he drove you to Nashville that was a big deal, you know, because that's like you're in college, paying for gas and all that stuff. It's like a guy really liked you if he took you all the way to downtown Nashville."
  • The music video was shot in February 2013 by director Peter Zavadi (Trace Adkins' "You're Gonna Miss This," Sara Evans' "A Little Bit Stronger"). It finds Hillary Scott on a wild night out with 2 Broke Girls actress Beth Behrs after she is accused of being boring by her bandmates. "This is definitely the most fun we've ever had shooting a video," said Scott in a statement. "Beth was sweet enough to agree to help out for this video. It's not often I have a partner in crime to help me stir up a little trouble for Dave and Charles!"
  • The song was Lady A's seventh Country #1. Responding to the news that it had topped the chart, the group's Charles Kelley commented, "Most of what the world has seen from Hillary (Scott) from a radio single standpoint is this very sweet kind of style like 'American Honey.' But she's got a lot of sass and a lot of grit to her voice, too, so it's been really fun to bring that out of her and have this kind of support from our fans and radio."
  • The Lady A trio knew this was a song they'd been looking for after they started rehearsing it for the first time. "I was like, 'I don't know if I can pull this off,'" recalled Hillary Scott, adding that Dave Haywood assured her that she'd nailed it. "Right when we started the groove and you started singing, it was like, 'Oh, there it is. That's what we've been looking for.'"
  • Scott told Billboard magazine the song's music video was the most fun of all the ones she's been a part of. "We laughed and laughed, and had the best time," she said. "Videos can be long days and tiring, and the boys won't argue that they are their least favorite part of everything we do. I knew it was going to be a great video when I showed up at the shoot, and they were laughing and cutting up, asking the director to shoot extra scenes while they were dressed up in their Starsky & Hutch attire. It was hysterical."

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