Cowboys and Angels

Album: Dustin Lynch (2012)
Charted: 40
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Songfacts®:

  • Dustin Lynch was raised in the rural countryside of Tullahoma, Tennessee, where he grew up listening to Country music. In 2003 Lynch made the 90 mile move to Nashville in order to attend David Lipscomb University. Lynch also dreamed of becoming a musician, and he rented an apartment near the Bluebird Café, which is a popular music venue for songwriters, instrumental in the development of such stars as Garth Brooks and Faith Hill. He regularly attended the venue and gradually began writing and playing shows himself in the Music City as well as the neighboring college circuit. Lynch signed a publishing deal with Super 98/The Song Factory in 2010 and a record deal with Broken Bow Records the following year. This is his debut single, which was released January 17, 2012.
  • Lynch penned the cut with Josh Leo (Alabama, Leann Rimes) and Tim Nichols (Chris Young, Scotty McCreery) He recalled the writing of the song to CMT News: "When we wrote it, Tim and I brought the idea on the same morning. We both had the same idea, but we had never met each other. So it was kind of a freak event that the song was written a little over two years ago. Now it's going to change my life. It was like a present from the sky.

    I have my grandparents' and my parents' story to draw from, and Tim and Josh had theirs. Our goal was to make it a universal story so everyone could take it and make it their own. I've seen postings all over the place about how it fits people's story, and it's awesome to see that."
  • The song's music video was directed by Peter Zavadil and filmed in Elgin, Texas. Lynch told CMT News about the shoot: "It was actually my first day ever to hang in Texas," he recalled. "We've been through Texas on the go, on the bus. We drove into Austin, and we shot the video in Elgin, outside of Austin. It's an awesome town. It had a Last Picture Show feel to it, which is why Peter Zavadil wanted to shoot the video there. A lot of films have been shot in Elgin - Friday Night Lights, Varsity Blues, stuff like that. It was cool to be where some magic had already happened."
  • Lynch told The Boot he'd planned for a long time to build his debut album around this song. "I've written hundreds of songs since then but it's always been there; it's always been the foundation," he said. "I had the idea for a long time but I was just waiting on the right guys to co-write the song with. It was my first co-write ever with Tim Nichols and Josh Leo, two guys that I idolized for obvious reasons - they're both hugely successful songwriters and Josh Leo is a guitar-playing and producing god. So just to meet the guys, I was pumped about, much less to get a chance to write a song with them."

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