Southerland Get Back to Their Roots With ‘Along Those Lines’ Acoustic Cut [Exclusive Premiere]

The members of country duo Southerland were born and raised exactly 217 miles away from each other, one in small-town Georgia and one from a suburban area of South Carolina. But when they reminisce about the very different towns they once called home, they realize how similar their upbringings really were.

And it’s these shared memories that the country stars in the making infused into every note of their latest release, “Along Those Lines.”

“When we wrote this song, we realized that it doesn’t matter where you are from,” explains Matt Chase in a recent interview with Taste of Country about their latest single, which he co-wrote alongside Greg Bates, Driver Williams and Southerland bandmate Chris Rogers. “A lot of time, you grow up very similar to everyone else, and in this song, it’s as if Chris (Rogers) and I came up with our own little fictitious town, where we took a little bit of this and a little bit of that from each of our hometowns and put it together into a song.”

“The Wando River and Kettle Creek are two real places,” adds Rogers, referring to the endearing opening lyric of the easygoing song: “And it's these sorts of places that make you proud to be from your hometown.”

Throughout the years, the country duo who conjure up some major Montgomery Gentry type vibes with their modern, yet traditional sound, have spent countless hours performing acoustically in bars and honkytonks with guitars on their laps and stories in their hearts.

“I’ve always had an affinity of acoustic versions of songs,” says Rogers of the acoustic version of “Along Those Lines,” exclusively premiering Tuesday (March 16) on Taste of Country. “It takes it back to exactly how we wrote these songs and it’s the purest form we can deliver a song in. There is nothing to hide behind. It’s just us and our guitars trying to tell this story and make the song the center of attention.”

“The acoustic format is really the lifeblood of how we started,” adds Chase.  “That’s what is authentic to us, and I believe it will always have a life in our brand. We truly believe we are songwriters first and artists second. If the song can’t stand alone on the guitar, it doesn’t matter what you do production-wise. It has to be meaty enough to stand alone.”

And “Along the Lines” is exactly that. And because of that, a growing legion of country music fans are beginning to relate to it.

“I love Nashville, and being here chasing this dream has really been some of the best years of my life,” reflects Chase. “But there is always that nostalgia of missing home. That will never go away for each of us. Since we released this song, I have received hundreds of texts from buddies back home who are like, ‘I remember this, and I remember that,’ and the song has gone and sparked up their own stories. There might be a million small-town songs, but for us and the way we wrote it, it seems so unique.”

“It talks about our hometowns but still, it’s universal,” concludes Rogers.

These Country Artists Are Keeping Traditional Country Alive: