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Josh Kelley enjoyed early success as a pop artist, but the singer-songwriter's country roots run deep on his latest album, 'Georgia Clay,' drawing inspiration from his baby girl, his blissful marriage to actress Katherine Heigl and his home state. In celebration of the project's release today (March 22), Josh shares with The Boot this exclusive cut-by-cut commentary, telling stories behind each track in his own words.

'Georgia Clay'
(Josh Kelley/Charles Kelley/Clint Lagerberg)

The whole idea behind 'Georgia Clay' came during a series of conversations with my brother, Charles. High school was fun because we didn't overdo it, we didn't over-think it; we just had fun. We are so close in age that we have always been each other's best friend. I always joke with him that he was born to be my best buddy.

My friends meshed with his friends, and we'd all go down to the lake. We'd pull these two jet-skis behind my Dad's white '77 Silverado. 'Georgia Clay' is basically the thought that we could go back to the garage and look at a car like that old hoopdy we had, and all those memories are layers of mud on the car: from rope swings to jet skis to getting stung. Basically, every first time in our youth happened on that lake. As the first single, released in August, 'Georgia Clay' has been getting good response and I'm definitely happy about that.

'A Real Good Try'
(Josh Kelley)

'Real Good Try' is a 100 percent-er. It's one of two cuts on the album that I wrote both the lyrics and melody myself. I was introduced to Ashley Monroe by my publicist Cassie, who is also my brother Charles' wife. They both told me I was gonna just love her, and they were right. When I met Ashley, I was like, instantly, 'You're my little sister,' so I was excited when she agreed to help out with the vocals. I'm a sucker for a songbird.

'Gone Like That'
(Josh Kelley/Nicolle Galyon/Clint Lagerberg)

I wrote 'Gone Like That' based on a real-life experience. When I was in college, there was this crazy, amazing girl who I'd see from time to time, but it was always fleeting. Every time, she'd come crash at my place, then the next thing you'd know, she'd be gone. There were like forty clubs in the area, and she'd always show up at the one I was hanging out at. We'd meet up, but then she always seemed to disappear and we never had the time to explore our relationship.

'Gone Like That' was originally sent to my publisher in hopes of getting an established country star to record it, but when I laid down the vocals, I was told that I should cut the song myself. If I could write a few more songs of that caliber, that had the same feel, I could put together a project for a country audience.

'Baby Blue Eyes'
(Josh Kelley/Lee Brice)

You can't write a song about brown eyes anymore, after a classic like 'Brown Eyed Girl,' and lyrically, the words 'blue eyes' just sounds better in the falsetto tone I sing it in. Let's just say I've caught a lot of crap for this one because my wife has brown eyes. What can I say? It's like I tell my wife: I wrote that one with Lee, and maybe his girl has blue eyes. While the eye color has changed for artistic reasons, the feeling and emotion is true.

'Naleigh Moon'
(Josh Kelley/Clint Lagerberg)

I think 'Naleigh' Moon' is the best song I've ever written in my whole life. The way the chords and the melody intertwine, it tugs on your heartstrings. When I'm singing it, man I mean it. I'm not just a guy in the studio doing take after take; I mean every word of it each time I sing 'Naleigh Moon.'

We'd only had Naleigh for a couple of months when I wrote and recorded that song. The thing I love about [my co-writer] Clint is that when we're working on creating a song, sometimes we just sit there in total silence for hours 'til it comes to us. That's what happened with 'Naleigh Moon.' My wife was on the set of a movie and Clint came down to work on the song. We sat in Katie's trailer and like magic, the song came to us.

'Two Cups of Coffee'
(Josh Kelley)

When I was doing a show as an indie artist, they put me up in this nice hotel and brought breakfast up and set up two place settings, even though my wife wasn't with me. I was on the phone with her and said, "I've got too much of me and not enough of you, honey," and that was when the song took life. 'Two Cups of Coffee' came out of feeling sad and feeling the distance between us. While we were recording it, I brought my harmonica into the studio and jokingly said to my producer that it might be fun to play around with it on this song. We laid down the track with the harmonica intro and he encouraged me to leave it on there. I love that song.

I feel like this album is really strong. I hope that regardless of what genre of music fans are into, they can come away after hearing this album and find something relatable to them.

'Rainin' Whiskey'
(Josh Kelley/Rob Hatch/Paul Jenkins)

'It's Raining Whiskey' is my favorite forecast. Like most songs I write, it came out of nowhere. About a year ago, I decided I could either open my own distillery or write a song about whiskey and get the attention of Maker's Mark, and never buy another bottle of whiskey in my life. I wanted to write a fun song that people eventually get annoyed with because it's played in every bar you walk into. It's such a fun song; it's my favorite song to play live. My only fear is that if this song takes off, there are gonna be a lot of honky-tonk owners across the country who are none too happy with me because of all the booze being sloshed around when the song is played.

'Great Idea'
(Josh Kelley/Lee Thomas Miller/Clint Lagerberg)

We didn't literally write it into the song, but when I see 'Great Idea' in my head, I see two people that used to hook up in high school, who are attending their high school reunion. They go through all these old shared memories and the night of the reunion, they hook up again. The kicker is, the next day you see a little kid running around, and it's then you realize they were just pretending like they'd been strangers since school, when in fact they were married right out of high school and have been happy together ever since.

'Learning You'
(Josh Kelley/Craig Wiseman/Clint Lagerberg)

The way 'Learning You' came about was when the label came to me and asked me to come up with a sexy song for the album, but because I can't force songs like that, we just waited and at the very end of the process, we came up with it out of nowhere. Thank God we had Craig there to help us take 'Learning You' in the right direction. We wanted the album to be as well-rounded as possible, and the end result turned out to fill that void perfectly.

'Ain't Lettin' Go'
(Josh Kelley, Charles Kelley, Patrick Davis)

It's interesting. 'I Ain't Letting Go' has me singing in a lower octave that I'm used to. My voice stays pretty consistent throughout the whole project, but this song needed something different. For 'I Ain't Letting Go,' I take on a role different from my usual performance. For the most part, this project is very cohesive in its sound, but this track, with its deeper range and quicker tempo, allowed me the opportunity to become an actor and present a different side of me.

'Don't You Go'
(Josh Kelley/Rachel Thibodeau/Kyle Jacobs)

Because of Katie's and my different schedules, each time we have to leave each other, when we hug, neither one of us wants to let go. I keep thinking, wouldn't it be great if I could just say, 'Forget it, I'm staying.' When we were recording 'Don't You Go,' I initially sang in a higher octave, but it didn't covey the intensity the song deserved.

My producer, Clint, really pushed me vocally on this album and this song in particular. I really wanted the intensity to come through, and after about 45 takes we had a final version we were happy with. In that final version, it is evident that Clint's pushing me to perform the song in a higher pitch than I'm used to really helped. While he played acoustic guitar on 'Don't You Go,' he also provided backing electric guitar on this song and the rest of the album. He's one of the best guitarists I've ever known.

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