This Ole Boy by Craig Morgan

Album: This Ole Boy (2011)

Charted: 87

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Songfacts®:

This Ben Hayslip, Dallas Davidson and Rhett Akins sing-along love song is the first single from Country artist Craig Morgan's sixth studio album. The cut was released to radio on June 21, 2011 and was the singer's first on Black River Entertainment after signing with the label in April 2011.
Morgan explained that the process of choosing songs for his sixth album hasn't changed much from when he was selecting tunes for his debut release. "No matter what level of an artist you are, you choose songs based on who you are at that time and how you feel," the Tennessee native revealed. "I'm at a point in my life where I'm extremely comfortable. Extremely confident. I feel good about my family, my children, my friends, my career. The songs that I picked, looking back now, reflect that."
That's model and actress Angie Harmon playing Morgan's love interest in the music video. In the late 1990s she played ADA Abbie Carmichael in the long-running NBC series Law & Order. More recently she's starred in the TNT television series Rizzoli & Isles as Detective Jane Rizzoli.
Joe Nichols also recorded the song for his 2011 album, It's All Good.
Morgan knew when he first heard the song that it was a tune he could make his own. In fact he immediately felt so at home with it, that he needed to check with longtime writing partner Phil O'Donnell that they hadn't penned the tune themselves. "I fell in love with the song. It immediately felt like something that I'd written," explained the singer to The Boot. "When I listen to music that's being pitched that I didn't write, I don't look to see who wrote it because that influences you even if you don't think it does. Sometimes I've had people send me songs that I was a writer on! So, when I got this song, I immediately got on the phone and called Phil and I said, 'I was listening to this song, 'This Ole Boy' – did we write this?' It felt that familiar! And Phil said, 'No, that was Rhett and Ben.' So I said, 'Well, this is definitely a no-brainer. If it feels that comfortable, we should cut it!'"

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