Carolina

Album: Feels Like Carolina (2013)
Charted: 36
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Songfacts®:

  • Parmalee is a country music band from Parmalee, North Carolina. The quartet consists of brothers lead vocalist Matt Thomas and drummer Scott Thomas, along with their bassist cousin, Barry Knox, and childhood best friend, guitarist Josh McSwain. This song was first released on their 2008 EP, Complicated, before being remixed and re-released as their second single for Stoney Creek Records. It was sent to country radio on February 4, 2013.
  • Matt Thomas explained the song's meaning to Billboard magazine: "It's all about home," he said. "It's very autobiographical, since we're gone all the time. We always miss all the family events and everyone, so coming home is good. We were out in California for a few months and got back home to North Carolina, and it felt like home. I had this notion that reminded me of California, so I put the two together, and we flipped it into a relationship song."

    Barry Knox added: "This song kind of defines us as a group, as far as our music and lyrical content. Obviously, we're from Carolina, so it means a whole lot to us. We've been together for a few years before we wrote that song, and when we wrote it, we felt that we really hit it. Matt's voice is perfect on the song, and it just sounds like a Parmalee song."
  • The song's promo was directed by the Nashville production team of Jonathan Frazier and Zach Prichard of Rhetorik Creative on May 30, 2013. It made a little bit of history when it became the first country video to premiere on Country Now, Youtube's first Country music & lifestyle channel on June 24, 2013.
  • The song crept up Billboard's Country Airplay chart before finally hitting the Top 10 in its 38th week - the longest such climb by a duo or group in the chart's history.
  • Matt Thomas told Taste of Country that this was a make-it-or-break-it song for the band and if it hadn't been a hit, they might not have had a chance to release another single with Stoney Creek. "We kind of got here to Nashville on the song," he shared. "Everybody at the label felt like it was a hit song, so did we so it was kind of like this should be a no-brainer. We were a little nervous when we first put it out over the summer."
  • Parmalee performed this song at the Concert For Carolina, held in Charlotte a month after Hurricane Helene pounded the state. The concert, which was organized by Luke Combs and Eric Church, raised almost $25 million for relief efforts.

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