B-side "For Me It's You" Format CD single Genre Country | Released February 3, 1998 Recorded December 30, 1997 Length 3:30 | |
"I'm from the Country" is a song written by Marty Brown, Stan Webb and Richard Young, who is the rhythm guitarist for the band The Kentucky Headhunters, and recorded by American country music artist Tracy Byrd. It was released in February 1998 as the first single and title track from his album I'm from the Country.
Contents
Content
"I'm from the Country" is an up-tempo twelve-bar blues, backed by electric guitar and fiddle, with some Hammond organ flourishes. In it, the narrator describes the rural lifestyle that he and his peers live, saying "We know how to work and we know how to play / We're from the country and we like it that way". On the final chorus, Byrd is joined by a crowd of backing singers, many of whom begin cheering over the final guitar solo.
The song was co-written by Marty Brown, along with The Kentucky Headhunters' rhythm guitarist Richard Young, and Stan Webb. Brown and The Kentucky Headhunters recorded the song's demo.
Critical reception
Thom Owens, who reviewed I'm from the Country for Allmusic, said of the song, "the key to the record's success is that he takes pains in proving the title true — and by the end of the record, you have no question that he is indeed from the country." Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard magazine reviewed the song with general favor by saying that the song is "buoyed by lots of fiddle and steel guitar riffs as well as a fun sing-along chorus." She also calls it a "festive, uptempo little romp, but with his deep, resonant voice, it would be nice to hear Byrd deliver songs with a little more meat to them."
Stan Webb received the SESAC Country Song of the Year award in 1998 for co-writing the song.
Chart performance
"I'm from the Country" debuted on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts at number 57 on the week of February 14, 1998. It charted for twenty-eight weeks, peaking at number 3. The song also spent seventeen weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 (his first entry on that chart since "Walkin' to Jerusalem" in 1995), peaking at number 63. It was a Number One on the RPM country charts in Canada.