Raising Alabama

Album: Angels Among Us: Hymns & Gospel Favorites: : Deluxe Edition (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is about the tornadoes that came through Alabama in April 2011. Vocalist Randy Owen told Billboard magazine: "Living through that changed everything. It's almost like a visit to St. Jude or Bethesda. You can't go through what we went through with 34 people killed in our county without it touching you. Where me and [bassist] Teddy [Gentry] live, there was hardly even a tree blown over, but just four miles from us, you had death. It was so amazing."

    Lead guitarist Jeff Cook added the tornadoes left devastation near his house as well. "It was so close to me," he said. "It looked like a sawmill had exploded with all of the logs. This lady came to the door and said, 'I've got a hair appointment in Cullman. Do you think I can make it?' She couldn't get out of her driveway."
  • In our interview with Teddy Gentry, he explained: "It was an emotional roller coaster writing that song. I'd sit and cry, write and cry and write." He continued: "After we did our farewell tour back in '03, the first show that we did was after the tornadoes went through. Me and Randy and Jeff talked the next day and we said we need to get together and try to do something to help these folks. So we did. We did a couple of concerts and raised quite a bit of money for charity to help tornado victims in our state here."

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