Morgan Wallen’s massive double album came out last year, but his songs are still resonating with fans, especially as he continues his Dangerous Tour. The opening song on his 30-track album, “Sand in My Boots,” is a hopeful, melancholy tune about a man who meets a girl on vacation and thinks she’s going to come back home with him to Tennessee. He tells her to meet him, and she thinks he’s crazy for suggesting it, but he still hopes she changes her mind. It’s a lesson, essentially, in not getting your hopes up.
‘Sand in My Boots’
- Best Lines: “She said, ‘Damn, that sky looks perfect’ / I said, ‘Girl you’ve never seen stars like the ones back home’ / And she said, ‘Maybe I should see them for myself'”; “Somethin’ bout the way she kissed me tells me she’d love Eastern Tennessee”
- Release Date: August 2021
- Written by: Ashley Gorley, Josh Osborne, Michael Hardy
- Produced by: Joey Moi
Morgan Wallen Proves His Skills With ‘Sand in My Boots’
“Sand in My Boots” is piano heavy, which is something Morgan Wallen usually doesn’t do. But, according to Wallen, he was excited for that aspect of the song. He’s worked a piano moment into his live shows that fans go crazy for.
But about the song itself; written by Hardy, who is currently supporting Wallen on his tour, “Sand in My Boots” paints a picture of a country boy in the last day of his beach vacation. He meets a local girl and is smitten with her, spending the evening on the beach and at a bar. She seems like she’s taken with him as well. The first verse illustrates the juxtaposition of this country boy with the beachy local girl:
She asked me where I was from
I said “Somewhere you never been to”
Little town outside of Knoxville
Hidden by some dogwood trees
She tried talkin’ with my accent
We held hands and waded into
That blue water
She left her flip-flops by my Red Wings on the beach
The second verse picks up on the rest of their night, following a conversation between them. The conversational aspect is interesting, as it gives a more personal touch to the song. We’re getting a look into their interactions, their hopeful romances, more so than if someone was just telling us what they were doing. It’s almost intimate, close and secret, like we’re listening in on a conversation between two optimistic lovers at the next table.
I said “Let’s go shoot tequila”
So we walked back to that beach bar
She said “Don’t cowboy’s drink whiskey?”
So we drank bottom shelf
She said “Damn, that sky looks perfect”
I said, “Girl you’ve never seen stars like the ones back home”
And she said “Maybe I should see them for myself”
The Story Behind ‘Sand in My Boots’
According to CMT, Hardy had the idea for “Sand in My Boots” on his phone for a while before showing it to Morgan Wallen. He instantly fell in love with it. Luke Bryan did as well, but Wallen got to it first. “I don’t know how he heard it,” Hardy said in a conversation with Wallen, “but we were all like we wanted you to have it. We thought that you could make it cool, so he missed out.”
The song started with the title, and Hardy went from there. “I just had this idea about just a summer love kind of thing,” he said. I’d say he captured that wistful, optimistic feeling of young summer love perfectly.
Morgan Wallen spoke to ET Online about the song in January 2021, and outlined his plans for the song on tour. “It’s a unique song for me and very piano heavy,” said Wallen. “I’m gonna add a piano moment into my show with it, which I’m super excited about.”
