You, Me & The River

Album: All In (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Chris Janson recounts the demise of his cheating romantic partner and her lover. Eric Church wrote the murder ballad and duets with Janson on it.
  • When Janson met Church during an all-star tribute to ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons at the Grand Ole Opry House in 2021, they bonded and became fishing buddies. Their connection led Church to send Janson a rough demo that landed in his inbox as he flew back from Whitefish, Montana. Janson recalled to Billboard that he landed at 3 a.m., pulled out his phone and saw Church had sent him a voice memo and song. He said, "Hey, this is a little bit dark, but I wanted to see what you think." Janson listened to the demo, loved it, and suggested they do it as a duet.

    "I thought he would say no," Janson continued, "but he immediately texted back, 'I'm in.'"
  • When Janson recorded "You, Me & the River" for All In, it became the first song he cut for a major-label album that he didn't have a hand in writing.
  • Janson and Church ended up collaborating on another All In track, "Flag On The Wall." That one is a co-write between the two where they went back and forth on the phone hashing out lyrics.
  • Janson and Church play out the song's sinister storyline during the black-and-white visual. "It's kind of Ozark-ish," Janson said of the clip. "We're both acting in the video, and it's shot so wonderfully, it's not even like a music video, it's more like a movie."

    Church's go-to visual collaborator Reid Long directed the video. Long received an ACM Award for Video of the Year for "Mr. Misunderstood."
  • That's Chris Janson playing the harmonica. The country star first picked up the instrument as a way to boost tips when he was playing in Nashville's nightclubs.

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