"Back to Tennessee" | ||||
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Single by Billy Ray Cyrus | ||||
from the album Back to Tennessee | ||||
Released | February 2, 2009 | |||
Format | Music download | |||
Recorded | 2008 | |||
Genre | Country rock | |||
Length | 4:12 | |||
Label | Lyric Street | |||
Songwriter(s) | Billy Ray Cyrus, Tamara Dunn, Matthew Wilder | |||
Producer(s) | Mark Bright | |||
Billy Ray Cyrus singles chronology | ||||
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"Back to Tennessee" is a country rock song by American singer-songwriter and actor Billy Ray Cyrus. It released as the second single from Cyrus' eleventh studio album of the same name on February 2, 2009 by Lyric Street Records. Cyrus drafted the song after learning that Hannah Montana: The Movie, a film he would star in, would be set in Tennessee. The song, developed with the aid of co-songwriters Tamara Dunn and Matthew Wilder, includes country rock elements while describing Cyrus' longing to return to the South, where he grew up, after spending several years in Los Angeles. "Back to Tennessee" was featured in both Hannah Montana: The Movie and its soundtrack.
"Back to Tennessee" was well received by critics, though some felt it took the album's message too literally. It was a moderate commercial achievement for Cyrus and charted within the top fifty of the Billboard magazine chart Hot Country Songs. The song's music video was directed by Declan Whitebloom and features scenes of Cyrus at a beach inter cut with clips of Hannah Montana: The Movie. The song was performed in several venues.
Cyrus moved to Los Angeles to star on the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana in 2006. Cyrus's character, Robby Ray Stewart, is a former country singer and the father of Miley Stewart, a popstar played by Miley Cyrus, Cyrus' real life daughter. The television series became a worldwide hit and the basis for Hannah Montana: The Movie, a feature film released in 2009.