Alabama
This song is not on one of our records. But we are very proud of the way it turned out. This song was written for and submitted to the movie Heaven’s Fall. The movie is the true story of nine African Americans wrongly convicted and imprisoned for assaulting a white woman on a train in [...]

Third Little Word
This song addresses those ‘three little words’. It lyrically makes a humorous observation that the most important word in the phrase is the last one.  It’s the third word, ‘you’, that gives the phrase unique meaning.  We happen to have a female version of this song…we were in the studio when Gretchen Wilson, [...]

The First to Know
This is one of the earliest Nashville compositions written by The Readings, and along with Wanda’s Song, is still considered one of the most honest and real tunes they’ve created.

One of Those Days
This song was inspired by the loss of The Readings’ mother, Bonnie, to cancer (you can read a bit about that in the “About” section of this website). Although it is about a person who is terminally ill with cancer, it is very much a song about living.  Bonnie lived every day [...]

That’s Gonna Be You
Just as She Brings Me Down is a father/daughter song, this is a father/son tune. This song addresses the common experience of most boys. At some point, when they’re young, Dad is Superman. Just a few short years later, he couldn’t be more uncool.  Somewhere along the way, things change, and you [...]

The inspiration for this story comes from Chris’ (then three year old) daughter, Nicole.
It’s written from the perspective of an everyday, average Dad who sometimes gets lost in his own routine, who from time to time needs a subtle reminder of what’s really important in life. Nicole never seems to care if he’s busy [...]

This song is based on a true story—the lives of our co-writer Randy Barber’s grandparents.  A great tribute to them.

Wanda’s Song
Ironically, this was the first song we wrote when we moved to Nashville and is one we still consider to be among our most unique and creative tunes. It’s the most interesting song we have musically, thanks to the acoustic groove John Paul Lourence came up with, with the verses in a minor key, [...]

Love’s Gone South
This song started out with Chris’s hook ‘Love’s Gone South’ and his idea that the girl had moved south, leaving her guy behind. The literal and figurative interpretation of “gone south” seemed like a good thing to work with…It took some time to come up with the idea that the couple had taken [...]