Shenandoah is back with a new single, and a new excitement for their place in country music. The group, led by lead singer Marty Raybon, just released “Revival,” a song written by Tyler Hubbard, Brian Kelley, Corey Crowder and Joshua Miller.
“When I heard the first chorus go down, I thought, ‘Man, this is like another ‘Church on Cumberland Road,'” Raybon tells Everything Nash. “When you hear it, you know, and it’s not that you weren’t convinced, or you wouldn’t be in the studio with it. But it was kind of like, ‘All right. This has all the goods.’ In fact, it’ll make you take back stuff you didn’t steal. It’s good stuff.”
After live music was shut down for so long because of the pandemic, Raybon felt there wasn’t a better song, one that accurately portrayed where Shenandoah is in their career right now, than “Revival.”
“It’s just one of those songs that really lyrically tells about the year of COVID,” Raybon reflects. “But more than anything, it talks about the year after COVID, when everything started opening up and everybody’s being able to get back together. Everybody’s able to go to the shows. The music’s being able to be presented to folks. And we’re having a revival doing it.”
Raybon and the rest of Shenandoah have fellow founding member Mike McGuire to thank for finding “Revival,” since it was he who reached out to Hubbard, while at an industry event honoring songwriter Bob Shapiro.
“Bob was one of the writers on ‘Church on Cumberland Road,'” Raybon shares. “They asked us if we would come and present that song during the festivity. So while we were there, Tyler Hubbard came in with a couple of other fellows. We were all backstage, chatting, and Mike McGuire said to Tyler, ‘Hey, look, we’re fixing to go in and cut. I really like what y’all do. I like the beat. I like the rhythmic things that y’all do. Why don’t you send us something?'”
Hubbard sent McGuire four or five songs, but it was “Revival” that immediately stuck out to both McGuire and Raybon.
“When I heard it, I thought, ‘Man, that’s cool,” Raybon recalls. “There’s a thing called four-on-the-floor, and that’s what the chorus does on ‘Revival.’ Shenandoah has never cut a song that had four-on-the-floor, but when it gets to the chorus and it says, ‘We’re having a revival,’ I mean, everybody’s going to town. It makes you feel good.”
As for Hubbard, who is having his own massive success as a solo artist, after spending a decade as one-half of Florida Georgia Line with Kelley, he couldn’t be more grateful that the legendary group recorded a song he helped write.
“As a songwriter at heart, I love when a song finds its perfect home,” Hubbard said when the song was released. “I’m thankful that ‘Revival’ found its place with such a great group as Shenandoah.”
“Revival” is from a forthcoming new album, which Shenandoah is currently recording, and will include plenty of special guests. The group will also spend much of 2023 on the road. Find all of their music, including “Revival,” and a list of their upcoming shows at ShenandoahBand.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of 8 Track Entertainment / Michael Gomez
