Songfacts®:

• It is a truth universally acknowledged - or at least quietly agreed upon by songwriters with a soft spot for rhinestones and regret - that if you are going to borrow from the Great American Songbook, you might as well reach for the stars. Or in this case, for a rainbow.
  
  Lainey Wilson's 2025 single, "Somewhere Over Laredo," released on the deluxe edition of her album Whirlwind, is not just a nod to the Judy Garland classic "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," it's a full-on melodic curtsy.
• The original idea for "Somewhere Over Laredo" came to Nashville songwriter Andy Albert out of nowhere. He realized if you keep repeating "somewhere over the rainbow" it kind of sounds like "somewhere over Laredo." The phrase transforms from dreamy to dusty - Judy Garland traded for a rodeo queen with a six-string and a suitcase.
  
  He sat on the idea until a strangely ideal setting appeared: standing in line for the VelociCoaster at Universal Orlando. Albert and co-writer Trannie Anderson were killing time between songwriter showcases when he pitched the "Laredo" line to her.
  
  Back in Nashville, Anderson set the mood with a wistful piano progression, and the pair built the chorus around that iconic octave jump before deliberately veering off into original melodic territory. "We were really intentional about trying to make sure we were off the melody the rest of the song," Albert told Billboard, careful not to lean too heavily on the Garland classic.
• The song found its final form outside Lainey's tour bus at the Adams Center in Missoula, Montana, on September 15, 2024. Wilson had brought Anderson and co-writer Dallas Wilson (no relation) - her go-to writing team affectionately called the "Heart Wranglers" - on the Country's Cool Again Tour. As they looked out at the wild Montana landscape, Anderson sang the song a cappella, keeping time on the side of her folding chair. Lainey was instantly hooked.
  
• The ballad follows a popular trend in the 2020s to breathe new life into older hits. Cole Swindell did it with "She Had Me At Heads Carolina," borrowing from Jo Dee Messina's 1996 classic "Head Carolina, Tails California." Kane Brown's "I Can Feel It" pulls heavily from Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight," and Dustin Lynch dragged Jelly Roll into a tribute to "Chevrolet," via Dobie Gray's "Drift Away." Now Wilson joins this lineage.
• Wilson co-wrote the song with Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson, and Andy Albert,
  
  Trannie Anderson is a CMA and ACM-nominated songwriter from Waco, Texas. She has co-written several of Lainey Wilson's hits, including "Heart Like A Truck" and "Wildflowers And Wild Horses." Anderson has cuts with other major artists such as Dan + Shay, Cole Swindell and Reba McEntire. Her background is rooted in Texas, and she brings a grounded, family-oriented perspective to her writing.
  
  Dallas Wilson, born and raised in Nashville, is a country and pop songwriter/producer. He is the son of legendary drummer/songwriter Lonnie Wilson and has a strong musical pedigree. Dallas has written songs for artists like Mitchell Tenpenny, Dylan Scott, and Teddy Swims. He also co-wrote "Heart Like a Truck."
  
  Andy Albert is an American country music singer, songwriter, and producer from Roswell, Georgia. He moved to Nashville in 2011 and has written for major artists including Blake Shelton, Dustin Lynch, and Carrie Underwood. Albert's background includes a stint in the pop-rock band Holiday Parade before focusing on country songwriting.
• Jay Joyce produced the stirring ballad. His arrangement here is understated but lush: piano-driven, threaded with fiddle, and dressed up just enough to sound modern without scaring the purists.
• Wilson debuted "Somewhere Over Laredo" live at the 2025 American Music Awards on May 26, 2025, three days after its release. No ruby slippers were involved.
• The TK McKamy-directed video opens with Wilson boarding a plane to Southern California, guitar in hand. As she settles into her seat and sips a drink, she drifts into a surreal, colorful dreamscape - a Western reimagining of Dorothy's journey in Oz.
• The lyrics take flight – literally - with a plane soaring over Laredo, where Lainey Wilson reflects on a love left behind. For geographic realism, the original flight from Dallas to California was rerouted to start in Houston so it would actually pass over the border town. As she gazes out the window of a plane flying over Laredo, she reminisces about a past romance, evoking imagery of rodeo nights, the Rio Grande, and "lone star-crossed lovers" who were "born to get gone from the get-go."
  
  Nodding to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" there are blackbirds flying, lullabies echoing, and a melancholic reach for what could have been - only this time not in Oz but somewhere vaguely west of San Antonio.
• Wilson told CBS Mornings that much of her songwriting happens while staring out a plane window, using that time to dream, talk to God, and reconnect with her past. "Somewhere Over Laredo" let her "step back into a pair of shoes [she] wore a long time ago."