It’s evident Luke Bryan feels closer to God when he’s in nature, specifically when hunting, and chronicles this other space in the faith-led “Prayin’ in A Deer Stand.” Released as a single in 2022, Bryan contemplates his connection with God and how he still connects to the divine when he’s camo’d up.
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Think I read somewhere in the Good Book
Says He’s everywhere
Up in this tree with the wind and the leaves
Yeah, it all seems so clear
When your phones in the truck, and you’re camo’d up
And your mind’s just runnin’ free
It might look like huntin’, but it’s way more than that to me
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Co-written by Jimmy Robbins and Nicolle Galyon, “Prayin’ in a Deer Stand” moves into Bryan’s native Georgia woods and the stillness and spiritual experience he has in nature through the anthemic chorus.
I do my prayin’ in a deer stand
On my back forty church
Thinkin’ ’bout life on a cold sunrise
Yeah, that’s my Heaven on Earth
Me and God in a cornfield
Gotta think He understands
I might miss a Sunday from time to time
But I get there when I can
We’re all good in these woods
‘Cause here I am, prayin’ in a deer stand
“This is such a personal song to me,” shared Luke in a statement. “The world can be a busy place and I like a lot of people have a ton of different things going on but getting to be outside. It grounds and reenergizes me. There is just something about it that never gets old.”
Hunting Tales
“Prayin’ in A Deer Stand” isn’t Bryan’s only song referencing his connection to nature, his hometown, and hunting.
Bryan’s 2015 single “Huntin,’ Fishin’ and Lovin’ Every Day” is self-explanatory: If I could make a nickel off a turning ’em bass / Never worry about the price of gas / I’d be wheelin’ and dealin’ and sittin’ there reelin’ ’em in.
He also recounted his hunting and fishing on his Tailgates & Tanlines track “Muckalee Creek Water” from 2011, while the 2020 song “Born Here Live Here Die Here”—and title track of his seventh album—is an ode to his Georgia woods and rivers.
Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images for CMA
