It's Just That Way

Album: Freight Train (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This steel guitar laced ballad, which was written by Vicky McGehee, Kylie Sackley and the song's producer Keith Stegall, is the lead single of American Country artist Alan Jackson's sixteenth studio album, Freight Train.
  • This cut is a love song in which the narrator compares his assurance that he will always love his woman to the way the sun comes up in the morning and the stars show up every evening.
  • Jackson's daughter, Mattie, wrote the script for the song's music video. Jackson recalled to The Boot: "We're always looking at ideas for videos and I've shot about 50 of them, literally 50-something, and you kind of run out of ideas. We had some ideas thrown from directors but nothing knocked me down. And I told all my girls one day - they were all sitting there - I said, 'Why don't y'all come up with an idea for this thing? You're all pretty musical and creative.' She called me one day from college and said, 'I've got this idea,' and was telling me about it. And I said, 'Put it down on something.' She printed it out... and I showed it to my manager and the record label liked it and everybody wanted to do it, so I got the director to do it. And bam! There it was."
  • The song features harmonies from bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent, who also contributes to two other tracks on the Freight Train album. However, Jackson revealed to Dial Global there are some songs Vincent refuses to help him out on. He explained: "Rhonda has sung harmony before with us and I've just always loved her. She's just one of the best to me - can sing the bluegrass or she can sing country, either one. The only thing about Rhonda is if it's a drinkin' song, she won't sing on it."
    Jackson added: "You can't call her in on 'Good Time' or something... it's 'I can't sing on that,' and I [say], 'OK.'"

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