Danielle Bradbery Ponders The Past In ‘Girls In My Hometown’
This song is so relatable!
Danielle Bradbery is looking back at her younger days in her latest song, “Girls In My Hometown,” released today (9/25). In the tune, Bradbery sings about how simple things, like turning on the news and listening to country radio, can trigger memories of her hometown, and specifically, the girls in her hometown. These memories then turn to thoughts about how those girls are doing and if they ever think of her.
In the chorus, she sings, “Are they getting married? Are they getting jaded? When they think 17 do they think of me, and wonder if I made it?”
The song was written by Nicolle Galyon, Josh Osborne, and Emily Weisband, and while Bradbery didn’t have a hand in writing it, she says the writers captured what she was thinking.
“I can write a song all day long and maybe not hit exactly what I was hoping for or what I hear in my head, and then I listen to somebody else’s song, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s exactly what I wanted to say and hear,’” Bradbery told Sounds Like Nashville in an exclusive interview.
“This song is about thinking about the people in your hometown,” she continues. “You’ve gone your separate ways and you’ve gotten out of your hometown, and you’re like, ‘I wonder what they’re doing.’ Personally, I see on social media — a girl I knew is having a baby and another girl I knew is getting married and my best friend got married, and it’s just crazy how life is.”
The song gives off a nostalgic feeling as Bradbery remembers those she grew up with, but there is also a bittersweet aspect of the song, which is prevalent in the final chorus when she wonders, “In the back of my mind did they get it right?” For Bradbery, who took a different path than many of her classmates, she feels that bittersweetness personally.
“I got out of school early to do The Voice and I really would say I didn’t get to experience that young, go-through-school life,” she says. “That hits a little bit to home when I hear some of those lyrics.”
Those sentiments are brought to life in the song’s production, which features mellow piano instrumentation mixed with acoustic country elements and accompanying harmonies. “Girls In My Hometown” follows Bradbery’s latest song, “Never Have I Ever,” which was released in May.
