Country

Album: Behind This Guitar (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Mo Pitney's debut single finds him addressing the many meanings of the word "country," concluding that it has more to do with values than with location, as it can happen anywhere. The singer-songwriter penned the song with veteran Nashville songwriters Bill Anderson (Connie Smith's "Once A Day") and Bobby Tomberlin (Diamond Rio's "One More Day") for Diamond Rio after spending hours talking with the pair about their experiences.

    In our interview with Pitney, he said, "It's a song about the word and what we think it means. It might not be totally accurate, but it's what we think it means."
  • Once the trio got down to writing a song about country music and the country lifestyle they all shared, they realized that they were all from different generations, with Bill Anderson the old guard, Pitney the new guy, and Bobby Tomberlin in between. Despite their age differences, they admire the same artists, which include Ray Price, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. The song was written about a year before Haggard passed away at age 79.
  • There are some pitfalls that come with writing a song about the meaning of "country," which Pitney tried to avoid by watching out for clichés and keeping the focus way from himself, so instead of bragging about his country bona fides, he sings about what the word means.
  • Wes Edwards directed the video, which uses the white backdrop common in film shoots as part of the story, showing how "country" is about the person, not the scenery.

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