“Carolina to Me” by Scotty McCreery

As we have noted prior, Scotty McCreery grew up in small-town North Carolina. His experiences there were obviously edifying enough to inspire him to drop other tracks concurrently with this one that are in recognition of the ‘hood, such as “It’ll Grow on Ya” and even perhaps to some degree “The Waiter“. And in this particular case, instead of focusing on the town per se he decides to give a shoutout to entire state of North Carolina. And sorta like the motif Scotty employed on “Damn Strait“, he does so largely by utilizing proper nouns associated with this locality.

As we have also pointed out in the recent past, McCreery is in fact a religious fellow. So in the first verse, when he goes about potentially looking forward to a better afterlife, we know that’s a concept he actually believes in.

But the vocalist is conjuring up images of heaven to get to another point. And that is, once again, his love of North Carolina. Or put differently, to him living in the Tar Heel State is akin to heaven on earth.

So basically what we’re dealing with here is a tribute-to-the-‘hood track, interwoven with religious references. So instead of simply giving a shoutout to the community of Linville for instance, McCreery presents it as a place where he personally “talked to God face-to-face”. 

Indeed the notion that the chorus is truly putting forth is that Scotty actually prefers living in North Carolina over being up in heaven. So from a more practically standpoint, the thesis sentiment of “Carolina to Me” would be that he really, really loves his home state.

Facts about “Carolina to Me”

This is a song which a label called Triple Tigers released on 27 August 2021. It is one of the songs on Scotty McCreery’s album, “Same Truck”.

Besides for the aforementioned Linville, another popular North Carolina area that is referenced in this song is Tobacco Road. This is a strip that has already been memorialized in song prior, most notably by The Nashville Teens in the early 1960s. Scotty also makes mention of Kill Devil Hills. Kill Devil Hills is actually a real town found in the Old North State. 

Additionally there is a shoutout to the late Andy Griffith (1926-2012). Griffith is a legendary entertainer who himself was from a part of NC known as Mount Airy. Throughout his life he was heavily associated with the state. He even got buried there also.

Scotty McCreery wrote “Carolina to Me alongside Jeremy Bussey and Taylor Phillips. And the track was produced by the team of producers, consisting the following:

• Derek Wells
• Frank Rogers
• Aaron Eshuis

Did Scotty release “Carolina to Me” as a Single?

No. There were only two official singles that came out of Scotty’s “Same Truck” album. They are:

• “You Time”
• “Damn Strait”