When Jordan Davis and his brother Jacob Davis, along with fellow songwriters and brothers Matt and Josh Jenkins, sat down to write “Buy Dirt,” they never expected it would one day win Song of the Year at the CMA Awards. But in pulling from an honest, humble place, the song took Davis to heights greater than he could imagine. Below, we look at the story behind “Buy Dirt.”
Videos by American Songwriter
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Meaning Behind the Song
Davis recalls how the song “came out of a small group” when he and the band of brothers rented a small cabin in Tennessee where the writing of the song took place. They were all reading Bible verses together one morning when one, in particular, stood out about how to “plant your roots deep so the storms can’t move you,”
“We talked about our families, how we want to raise our kids, the husbands we want to be,” Davis explains to American Songwriter. “You don’t have to have a house on the hill to be a good dad and love your family well. That’s truly where ‘Buy Dirt’ came out of.”
The song opens with a personal piece of advice Davis received from his grandfather about not being indebted to money. A few days before he turned 80 / He was sittin’ out back in a rocker / He said, “What you been up to lately?” / I told him, “Chasing a dollar” / And in between sips of coffee / He poured this wisdom out / Said, “If you want my two cents on making a dollar count, Davis sings in the first verse. Describing the lyrics as his “grandpa to a T,” Davis recalls how his grandfather used to have a birdhouse in his backyard that he’d watch martin birds fly in and out of, sometimes as many as 40 birds in it at once.
“That truly was his advice – don’t don’t chase money, get your property with people you love,” Davis expresses, reminiscing on his favorite memory of his grandfather drinking coffee while watching the martins fly around. “It’s just perspective, and he had a good one.”
This sets up the chorus that Davis cites as “pretty real” where Davis and crew directly reference his grandfather’s wise words in such lyrics as:
Find the one you can’t live without
Get a ring, let your knee hit the ground
Do what you love but call it work
And throw a little money in the plate at church
Send your prayers up and your roots down deep
Add a few limbs to your family tree
And watch their pencil marks
And the grass in the yard all grow up
‘Cause the truth about it is
It all goes by real quick
You can’t buy happiness
But you can buy dirt
The Addition of Luke Bryan
After the song was written, Davis pitched it to his label mate, Luke Bryan, to see if he’d be willing to be a featured vocalist. When Davis texted him the song, Bryan quickly replied back that he “loved it” and agreed to sing on it soon after.
Released in 2021 as the lead single off Davis’ new album, Bluebird Days, the song gradually made its way to No. 1 on both the Billboard Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts in 2022, as well as the top 25 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. It also won Song of the Year at the 2022 CMA Awards. Davis notes that while they had no exceptions for it when they wrote it, “Buy Dirt” has impacted the trajectory of his career and how he approaches songwriting.
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“We didn’t write that song in order to be hit, we truly didn’t think anything of it that day,” he professes. “We were proud we wrote that song, but we didn’t think it would do anything past us being really proud of it. I think it showed me that truly writing from a really honest place, writing from your heart, can impact people a lot more than some cool rhymes, a cool melody, and a catchy chorus. That one has definitely changed the way I want to write songs going forward.”
Bluebird Days was released in February 2023.
Photo by Harper Smith / Jen Vessio PR
