Water Under The Bridge

Album: yet to be titled (2022)
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Songfacts®:

  • The phrase "water under the bridge" refers to past events or situations that are no longer regarded as important as a lot of time has passed. Here, Sam Hunt uses the expression to recall teenage memories.

    I kissed a girl my buddy used to like
    He showed up out here and he wanted to fight
    Now I still talk to him but don't know where she is
    This is just water under the bridge


    And also a literal local gathering place where Hunt and his friends used to hang out.

    Broken bottles and graffiti
    Fearing girls and poppin' wheelies
    Love was fun and life was easy
    Now it's just water under the bridge
  • Hunt was born and raised in Cedartown, Georgia. Like many small-town teens, the singer and his pals had a regular hangout spot, which in their case was under an old back road down by the river. "Folks have been gathering up there long before we came along and I'm sure still gathering up there now," Hunt said, "but on Friday and Saturday night go out there to have a good time, let our hair down a little bit, get into a little bit of trouble. We made a lot of memories out there."

    It's likely Hunt and his buddies used to hang out by Big Cedar Creek, a tributary to the Coosa River.
  • Sam Hunt wrote the song with regular collaborators Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne along with the track's producer Chris LaCorte. The same four also co-penned his previous single, "23."
  • Want another song about "water under the bridge"? Check out Adele's 2015 track of that title.
  • Directed by Mason W. Dixon, the song's music video finds Hunt cruising and fishing in a jon boat. After a day on the river, he docks his vessel and joins his friends, including fellow country singer Kassi Ashton and her fiancé Travis Myatt. They enjoy a cookout on the riverbank location.

    Dixon shot it at a local Middle Tennessee fishing hole where Hunt likes to catch smallmouth bass. "I have a canoe that I'll strap onto the top of the jeep or truck and take over there and float that little stretch and sometimes catch fish, sometimes not," Hunt said, "but it's so pretty over there it's worth taking the trip in the summer or early fall."

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