Tim McGraw Shares Inspiration Behind ‘Sundown Heaven Town’ Songs

Tim McGraw's long-awaited 'Sundown Heaven Town' album is finally released. The record has already spawned the Top 5 single 'Meanwhile, Back at Mama's,' a duet with his wife Faith Hill, which McGraw says set the tone for the entire project.

“Either you have a memory or a connection to that bucolic, sort of idealized childhood or home that you grew up in, or you wanna have it," he explains to Taste of Country. "I grew up in a small town, playing baseball every summer. We lived around cotton fields, bean fields. It certainly wasn't idyllic, my childhood, but I certainly had a sort of rule, sort of background the song invokes.

"Especially this time of year, when there's a lot of great songs out there, and a lot of great party songs, and a lot of great 'turn up the radio and drink beer' [songs], that's all great, and I love all that kind of stuff," he continues. "But I think for me, and what's cool about the song, is that it sits in the middle of all of that. It makes you stop and take a breath. I think that's what this record represents."

The Louisiana native says 'Sundown Heaven Town' is the culmination of his more than two decades in country music.

"It wraps its arms around what I've done from the very beginning of making music to where I'm headed at the middle of my career making music," he tells Yahoo! Music. "That's why there's 18 songs, because it just tells a long story about my career."

While the title may have seemed a bit curious, since there isn't a single by the same name on the record, McGraw says it's actually a perfect fit.

“When you’re looking for an album title, it has to make you think of something,” he explains to Country Weekly. “It has to make you instantly get an image of something. You don’t want people to get your image of what that is, you want people to get their own image of what that is. When I hear it, the first thing I think of is playing little league baseball. Growing up in a little town in Louisiana, a little league baseball park with the sun just going down at dusk, the smell of the concession stand. It’s a real Americana image that I get.”

The 47-year-old only wrote one song on the record, but he says it's more important for him to find tunes that he can relate to, regardless of whether he penned them himself.

"I just try to find songs that move me. Then I go into the studio, and we all try to be inventive, come up with different sounds that try to fit the mood," McGraw tells Rolling Stone Country. "Hopefully that falls into something that's fresh and modern but sounds familiar at the same time."

Download 'Sundown Heaven Town' here.