Drinkin' Problem

Album: On The Rocks (2016)
Charted: 45
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Midland is an American country music trio consisting of lead vocalist Mark Wystrach, bassist Cameron Duddy and guitarist Jess Carson This is their debut single. The band members wrote the song with Josh Osborne and Shane McAnally, the latter of whom also produced it.
  • Released as a single on February 27, 2017, the song gradually went viral and entered the Hot 100 three months later. Mark Wystrach attributes some of the song's success to something legendary songwriter Dean Dillon once told the band.

    "He said, 'Boys, write what you know.' And we know a lot about bars," the singer said, half-joking. "I grew up in a bar. My family owns a live country music honky tonk."

    "I think it's the kind of song you can listen to on a Friday night when you're getting ready to go out with your friends, and on Monday evening when you've got the blues," he added.
  • Wystrach believes the authenticity in the writing carried through to the studio. "It's not a put-on," he asserted. "When we performed it and recorded it, it was cut with feeling and emotion, and I think that's what people are responding to. For us, we grew up on music that made you feel something. When Merle Haggard sang 'Misery and Gin,' you said 'Holy cow!' And you don't forget that song, ever! That's a part of your life from that point on."
  • "Drinkin' Problem" is one of five songs on Midland's self-titled debut EP, which was released in October 2016.
  • The hook was inspired by a rerun of a classic TV comedy. Josh Osborne recalled to The Boot:

    "I had seen an old episode of M.A.S.H., and one of the characters had said, 'Well, people are saying you have a drinking problem.' I don't even remember which character it was, but he said, 'Well, I got no problem drinking at all.' I wrote it down in my phone, but it was such a traditional country hook that it just didn't fit everywhere.

    We had heard a little bit of what these guys were doing when they reached out to Shane and I to write with them. I mentioned it to Shane: I said, 'I have this idea. I don't know if it's exactly what they're going to want to go for, but I've just been sitting on this idea.' Shane loved it."
  • Midland also recorded a Spanish version of the song under the title "Brindemos," with the Mexican rock songwriter, producer, and musician, Jay de la Cueva. Mark Wystrach told Billboard that the Latin rendition "really sounds like it was meant to be in Spanish. It sounds like we originally wrote it in Spanish. It's got a beautiful flow."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Weezer

WeezerFact or Fiction

Did Rivers Cuomo grow up on a commune? Why did they name their albums after colors? See how well you know your Weezer in this Fact or Fiction.

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"They're Playing My Song

A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Call us crazy, but we like it when an artist comes around who doesn't mesh with the status quo.

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."

Eagles Lyrics Quiz

Eagles Lyrics QuizMusic Quiz

Lots of life lessons in these Eagles lyrics - can you match them to the correct song?