Luke Bryan is a talented singer and performer, but he’s also a talented songwriter. Bryan has written several of his own hits, along with hits for other artists. We’re taking a closer look at four songs Bryan wrote, which prove his abilities as a songwriter.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Do I”
“Do I” is Bryan’s fourth single, and his first multi-platinum hit. Written by Bryan, along with Lady A’s Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley, the song is on Bryan’s sophomore 2009 Doin’ My Thing record.
“Do I” is about the questions someone might have, especially after being in a relationship for a while. The song says, “Remember when we didn’t have nothin’ / But a perfect, simple kind of lovin’? / Baby, those sure were the days / There was a time our love ran wild and free / But now I’m second-guessing everything I see / Do I turn you on at all when I kiss you, baby? / Does the sight of me wanting you drive you crazy? / Do I have your love, am I still enough? / Tell me don’t I, or tell me, do I, baby?”
“Good Directions”
Billy Currington recorded “Good Directions“, which Bryan wrote with Rachel Thibodeau. The song, released in 2006, became a three-week No. 1 hit for Currington.
“Good Directions” is a sweet story about a man who falls for a woman when she stops to ask for directions. The lyrics say, “I told her, ‘Way up yonder past the caution light / There’s a little country store with an old Coke sign / You gotta stop in and ask Miss Bell for some of her sweet tea / Then a left will take you to the interstate / But a right will bring you right back here to me.’”
“When I moved to Nashville, I knew I wanted to be an artist,” Bryan says (via The Boot). “But I dove into songwriting and did a lot of that. I still sometimes have to realize that I am an artist. The fact that I’ve had a No. 1 song [I wrote] as an artist is still surreal.”
“I Don’t Want This Night To End”
Bryan wrote “I Don’t Want This Night To End” with Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, and Ben Hayslip. A multi-platinum single for Bryan, “I Don’t Want This Night To End” is a unique twist on a love song, packed with plenty of visual imagery. The song, out in 2011, is on Bryan’s third studio album, Tailgates & Tanlines.
“I Don’t Want This Night To End” says, “You got your hands up / You’re rockin’ in my truck / You got the radio on / You’re singin’ every song / I’m set on cruise control / I’m slowly losin’ hold / Of everything I’ve got / You’re looking so damn hot / And I don’t know what road we’re on / Or where we’ve been / From starin’ at you, girl /All I know is I don’t want this night to end.”
“What Makes You Country”
“What Makes You Country” is like a love letter from Bryan to the country way of life. Bryan co-wrote the song with Davidson and Ashley Gorley.
“What Makes You Country” says, “Me, I got my Sunday learning in a live-oak church / Silver Queen corn in the backyard dirt / Waiting for the fall to finally come along / So I can grab my gun and get my outside on / Step side covered down in peanut dust / Friday-night spotlighting, that was us / It might not’ve been you, but I can’t judge / Just be proud of what makes you country.”
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
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