Photo: Scott Kowalchyk, CBS
Lainey Wilson called up feelings of nostalgia when she performed her dreamy single with a nod to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night (September 24).
The reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year took the stage with “Somewhere Over Laredo.” Wilson's ballad cleverly nods to the classic song famously performed by actress Judy Garland when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in 1939. It's one of 19 tracks that appears on the deluxe edition on Wilson’s latest studio record, Whirlwind. Wilson said as she chatted with host Stephen Colbert before her performance that she titled her album because “the last few years...it’s been a whirlwind.”
Wilson, 33, spoke about her 14 years building her career in Nashville, Tennessee, including her first three years living in a camper trailer. The Bell Bottom Country Grammy winner moved from her hometown of Baskin, Louisiana — which has a population of about 157, or “maybe 156 after I left,” she said — in 2011. Wilson said getting into the entertainment industry was “absolutely not” as glamorous as she would have thought.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Wilson said as she told Colbert about her move to Nashville. “There was a guy from my hometown, his name is Jerry Cupit, and he was my mentor growing up. He had some success with country music in the 90s. And my grandfather gave hum a few hundred dollars to help him move to Nashville in the late 70s. So, as a favor in return, he let me park my camper trailer literally in his parking lot of his studio. That’s where I lived the first three years I was there. And I’ve been there 14 (years).”
Wilson shared that she started writing music at 9 years old, and earned her first $20 at that age when she sang a cappella at the grand opening of a convenience store in Baskin. She “always had this weird sense of faith about knowing that this is what I was gonna do, no matter what. I feel like it’s more than a hobby. It’s more than a passion. It’s my calling, and I knew that at 9 years old. I knew this was my calling, and I was gonna do whatever I had to do. …What’s so weird is, my parents are pretty realistic, you know? but they have always also known that I was gonna do it. and they did whatever (they had to do) to help me do it.”
“I’m very proud of this song,” Wilson said in a previous interview with iHeartCountry of “Somewhere Over Laredo,” written with Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson and Andy Albert. “I spend a lot of my time in the air on a plane, headed to the next town, to the next show, and I catch myself just looking out the window and dreaming, and thinking, and reminiscing, talking to God, (and) writing songs. And I feel like this song right here, it gave me an opportunity to step back into a pair of shoes that I wore years ago, and I got to tell a story from that perspective. So, and that’s what country music is, you know? It’s about taking you back to a certain time and place, and memory and feeling, and that’s what we wanted to capture in this song right here. And it was cool to be able to tip our hat at the same time to one of the most classic songs of all time.”
Watch Wilson’s chat with Colbert here, and watch her performance of “Somewhere Over Laredo” below.