Luke Laird, Lori McKenna, Barry Dean - The Songwriter Tapes, Vol. 3 (2023)

On March 31, The Songwriter Tapes Vol. 3 will complete the trilogy that finds the acclaimed songwriters putting their own voices to some of the special songs they’ve written over the course of their careers. The four-song EP ends with a song that was unreleased. The final volume features Laird singing Eric Church’s hit, “Give Me Back My Hometown,” which he co-wrote with the singer, followed by Dean singing Martina McBride’s “God’s Will,” which he wrote with fellow legendary country songwriter Tom Douglas. McKenna offers her rendition of The Highwomen’s all-inclusive “Crowded Table” that she co-penned with two members of the supergroup, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby. The EP closes with “If I Had Known” performed by Dean that was written by him, McKenna and Michael Pollack.

The three writers worked together to pick the songs for each of the projects. “Give Me Back My Hometown” was released as the second single off Church’s acclaimed album The Outsiders in 2014 and hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

“I went to write with Eric Church in his cabin,” Laird recalls in a press release. “When I got there, he said, ‘I want to write a song with only one line in the chorus.’ That line was ‘Give Me Back My Hometown.’ Eric is a modern-day poet and while we were writing he came up with some incredible lines that didn’t even make it to the final version. But that’s Eric, he’s always serving the song. The one line that always makes me smile is the ‘Pizza Hut line. It takes me right back to growing up in northwestern Pennsylvania.”