Blake Shelton, songwriters bless ‘God’s Country’

No. 1 party celebrates ‘fastest rising’ chart topper

By Preshias Harris

Blake Shelton was in God’s Country on Wednesday, thanks to songwriters Devin Dawson, Michael Hardy and Jordan Schmidt.  More precisely, he was at a Number One party that was held at Ole Red in Nashville, which of course is in God’s Country!

At the media meeting before the awards presentation ceremony, Shelton said he was on a tractor, working on his farm in Oklahoma when he received the demo of the song, “God’s Country,” on his phone.  He recalled, “I was trying to drive and look at my phone at the same time and I figured out a way to play the song inside this machine through the Bluetooth that it had. And that’s when I heard “God’s Country” for the first time.”

(L – R): Devin Dawson, Michael Hardy, Jordan Schmidt, Blake Shelton. (Photo: Preshias Harris)

Turning to the three songwriters, he added, “I was literally working in the spot where, in the video, where we burned the tractor.”  He said that he immediately called producer Scott Hendricks who had sent him the demo and said, “I don’t know where the song came from, but that makes me want to make another record.”

A very fast ‘farm-to-table’ song

“God’s Country” (Warner Bros. Nashville) had one of the fastest journeys ever to the top of the Country singles chart. The speed with which Shelton recorded the song so soon after hearing it and its rapid success took the song’s writers by surprise. “It was a very fast ‘farm-to-table’,” noted Hardy. The song was written on a Thursday, Blake heard it that weekend and by Monday he had recorded it. It was also the fasted song to achieve Platinum status from the RIAA in more than a year.  So far in 2019, it holds the distinction of being the ‘most streamed country song.’ Continue reading “Blake Shelton, songwriters bless ‘God’s Country’”