Raised On Country

Album

Famous Friends

Label

RCA Records Nashville

Genre

Bro-Country

Media Type

45s

Duration

2:56

Composer(s)

Chris Young;Corey Crowder;Cary Barlowe

Entered Chart

Jun 15, 2019

Peak Date

Aug 17, 2019

Released

January 28, 2019

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

RCA Nashville

Chris Young's "Raised On Country" tips the hat to artists such as Joe Diffie, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, George Strait, and many others he listened to growing up. I was raised on Merle, raised on Willie Got my honky-tonk attitude from Joe Diffie Daddy did too, it's family tradition When someone cranks it up you can't help but listen My upbringing sounds like George Strait singing 'Cause if you know me, I was raised on country Young credits the Nashville stars for forming the soundtrack to his life. Young also references in the lyrics some familiar country imagery such as the "southern drawl in my talk," a "little pickup truck" and Tennessee whiskey. In the bridge, he nods to a lyric from Alan Jackson's 1992 classic, "Chattahoochee," when he sings, "Learned a lot about livin' and a little 'bout love." Chris Young co-wrote the upbeat song while out on tour along with his I'm Comin Over and Losing Sleep co-producer Corey Crowder and Nashville songwriter Cary Barlowe (Lady Antebellum's "American Honey"). Young admitted that when they set out to pen the tune he had a pretty ambitious goal in mind. "This song is so crazy, because when I wrote 'Raised on Country,' we were actually out on the road," he explained to ABC Radio. "And we were like, 'You know, we really want just kind of a country anthem.'" "Those are so hard to write," he continued, "because it seems like they'd be super obvious, but you've just got to come at it in the perfect way. And from the minute we started writing this song, we knew we were onto something." The "Raised on Country" video was directed Peter Zavadil, who also shot Young's "Losing Sleep" clip. It co-stars the singer's touring bandmates Kevin Collier and Ryan Haas and was filmed at Rosie's Twin Kegs, an old Nashville dive bar. Additional footage was shot at the historic WSM radio tower, the station that's home to the Grand Ole Opry. When Chris Young sat on the tour bus with Corey Crowder and Cary Barlowe, they got into a conversation about the energy you get back from a crowd. He told the other two he was looking to write about something he'd never talked about before. It needed to be anthemic, but at the same time very true to him. Young recalled to The Boot the trio came up the idea of a song about who Young is. Talking about how he was "raised on country, how people grew up," and who the country star grew up listening to. Young added that it can be tough sometimes to come up with something fresh: "There's days when it's really, really easy to write a song, and 95 percent of those times, it's a love song or a thought that I've already expressed on a record," he said. "We were really trying to chase something that I had not said before." At first, Chris Young wanted "Raised On Country" to be the title track of his seventh studio album, but when the follow-up single "Drowning" stalled at #18 and the album released was delayed by the pandemic, it was ultimately re-titled Famous Friends. More songs from Chris Young

Git a little southern drawl in my talk
Little pickup truck on my highway
Got a little boot stomp in my walk
Little neon lighting my Friday
Got some Tennessee in my whiskey
Raised a cup up if you with me

I was raised on Merle, raised on Willie
Got my Honky Tonk attitude from Joe Diffie
Daddy did it too, it's family tradition
If someone cranks it up, you can't help but listen
My upbringing sounds like George Strait singing
And I gotta give props to the radio, 'cause if you know me
I was raised on country

It's the only reason that I survived
Every breakup and every party
It's the soundtrack to my life
It runs deep in my DNA

I was raised on Merle, raised on Willie
Got my Honky Tonk attitude from Joe Diffie
Daddy did it too, it's family tradition
If someone cranks it up, you can't help but listen
My upbringing sounds like George Strait singing
And I gotta give props to the radio, 'cause if you know me
I was raised on country

(Raised on country music)
Learned a lot about living and a little 'bout love
(Raised on country music)
And you know that's something I'm so proud of

I was raised on Merle, raised on Willie
Got my Honky Tonk attitude from Joe Diffie
Daddy did it too, it's family tradition
If someone cranks it up, you can't help but listen
My upbringing sounds like George Strait singing
And I gotta give props to the radio, 'cause if you know me
I was raised on country

Yeah, I was raised on country
Raised on country