California

Album: Reckless Thoughts (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this stirring country ballad, Maia Sharp sings about leaving her home state of California, which happened around the time she separated from her wife. At first, she didn't know she was singing about both.

    "'California' is ripped from the real-life headlines," she told Songfacts in a 2023 track-by-track interview.

    "In 2019 I left my home state and my wife when, for most of my life, I couldn't imagine leaving either one. It was a dizzying leap of faith that mercifully has proven to be the right move (but I don't think I could say that if my ex and I hadn't stayed as close as we are). About halfway into writing the song, I realized that it was about the place and the person. That was a gut punch and confirmation that I had to record this one."
  • Sharp wrote this with Garrison Starr (her "Old Dreams" co-writer) and Nashville singer-songwriter Peter Groenwald of the duo Hush Kids.
  • Reckless Thoughts is Sharp's ninth studio album and her second Nashville release (the first was Mercy Rising in 2021).

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