About Way Down (feat. Shy Carter)

Tim McGraw and Shy Carter take a celebratory tour of the South in their newly released collaboration “Way Down,” the latest in a series of tracks McGraw has put out ahead of a yet-to-be-announced solo album. “Way down in Alabama got the Dreamland/B-ham, Mobile, Muscle Shoals,” intones McGraw, name-checking a few of the state’s most well-known cities and one of its beloved barbecue joints. It continues apace, lauding the towns (and women) of Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, and others, marrying a swaggering, swampy rhythm to Carter and McGraw’s gospel-infused shouts in each chorus. Carter, a singer-songwriter who’s helped pen hits for Sugarland (“Stuck Like Glue”) and Charlie Puth (“One Call Away”), also breaks into a rap that praises “the crickets and the dogs and yee-haws and the grandmas.” Earlier in September, the pair performed the song live at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, which will be broadcast on the CW at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, October 2nd. McGraw’s most recent solo album is 2015’s Damn Country Music, which he followed with the long-awaited duets album with wife Faith Hill, The Rest of Our Life. Since 2018, McGraw has released a series of singles and standalone tracks including “Neon Church,” “Thought About You,” and, most recently, a cover of the Cars’ “Drive.”