Songfacts®:

• After the astonishing success of her Raising Sand collaboration with Robert Plant, Country/Bluegrass singer Alison Krauss returned to her day job with her 2011 album, Paper Airplane. This track was written by Sidney Cox, who is a member of the bluegrass group The Cox Family and features the vocals of Union Station band member Dan Tyminski.
• The Cox Family have worked with Krauss since the early 1990s when she brought them to the attention of Rounder Records. Krauss has recorded several of Sidney Cox's songs, including the title track of I've Got That Old Feeling, which won a Grammy in 1991 for Best Bluegrass Album. However, Krauss told The Boot that Sidney Cox was in a place of feeling uninspired, before he eventually wrote this number. She explained: "He was sitting at the kitchen table here with his wife and he said, 'I just can't write love songs. I can't do it.' I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I feel like I'm betraying [my wife].' I said, 'Ah. It's not telling the truth.' You have to tell the truth. He's very much into his family history. He had started this tune about a ship that his mother's family came to Louisiana on. I loved it. He had two verses, and I was going crazy every time I heard it. He's been doing this for 25 years and he's just started the period of where he's writing his best songs."