BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE NOVEMBER 27, 2017 | PAGE 14 OF 19 MAKIN’ TRACKS TOM ROLAND
[email protected] David Lee Murphy, Kenny Chesney Are Doing ‘Alright’ With Feel-Good Reminder Don’t go hitting that panic button. Creating a country song that takes place in a bar isn’t a new idea, but that David Lee Murphy, who threaded that message into the chorus of his Kenny was never a concern in the writing room because the message went way beyond Chesney collaboration “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” knows a little about its locale. trusting time. After notching four top 10 singles on Billboard’s Hot Country “We didn’t focus on the bar or the beach,” says Yeary. “We focused on the Songs chart in 1995 and 1996 — including the now-classic No. 1 “Dust on problem — the monkey on the back of that guy.” the Bottle” — Murphy waited eight years to return to that tier with “Loco.” That set up one of the song’s most unique images in the second verse. Most Thirteen years after that, early indications are that he’s got another hit on his situations require some wrestling to shake that monkey, but in this case, the hands as an artist with three minutes and 52 seconds of timely reassurance. sign provided just enough calm that no fight was necessary. The monkey slides “I’m getting a lot of nice notes from people throughout the industry,” says off the protagonist’s back “right into the deep blue sea.” Murphy of his return, “so it’s really cool.” “There’s probably some deep underlying psychology to that,” says Stevens.