December 5, 2025 · 4 min
Story behind the song: Drinkin' 'Bout You
Drinking to forget a past love is something we've all done. Here's the story behind this bittersweetly funny song.
Hello Luvers!
We've got lots of presents for you! The days are growing short, so we've been cooking up lots of songs for you Luvers. Enjoy Chapter 1 of our first story-song arc: Drinkin' 'Bout You (full story below), Fill Me With Wonder, Wishes & Tigers. We've got a few more special holiday treats we're cooking up, so stay tuned and follow our channel for more!
The Story Behind Drinkin' 'Bout You
By Kristi Casey & Steven Glude
Where did the idea for the song come from?
Steven: The title popped into my head while I was in the shower.
Kristi: Steven appeared in the office doorway, eyes wild, hair dripping. He said, “Give me ten minutes to work on some lyrics. Then I want your help finishing this song.”
What inspired the lyrics?
Steven: I had a first verse and chorus pretty quickly. I play with “some” and “sum” to set up the joke about one plus one equalling one because that’s “just science!”
Kristi: It was hard to sing that lyric with a straight face! The rest of the song needed to build off that scaffolding. So I took a stab at providing some of the backstory of who this lover is and what their relationship was like in the second verse. For the bridge, we had a lot of fun weaving in drinking metaphors. I'm particularly fond of “Amber Ale, the color of your hair, disappears as I drain my glass.”
What’s Drinkin’ ’Bout You about?
Steven: It’s about how you can’t just erase someone who meant something to you, even if you didn’t appreciate them at the time. And how drinking only makes you obsessively focus on what you want to forget.
How did the song come together?
Kristi: Steven sang me the first verse and the chorus and then played the melody in a loop on his guitar while I sketched out a rough second verse and bridge. I sang it for him, and then we adjusted the words to fit together.
Steven: The whole song came together in less than an hour. We spent the next hour playing with the harmonies.
Kristi: It reminded me of one of those pop country songs from the 1950s or 60s. I spent many happy post-college years soaking that music up from WRAS’s “Cowtipper’s Delight” radio show. So in homage to those old-timey songs, I threw a melodic nod to Brenda Lee into the bridge.
Steven: We couldn’t wait to record it. I thought it would be quick: Just my guitar and vocals. Simple.
Kristi: But while he was mixing the vocals, I came up with a bass line. Then, Steven realized there was a really nice opportunity to add his guitar-strung banjo, which we call the ‘manjo,’ to the song.
Steven: And it felt like we should have drums.
Kristi: But not a computer-generated drum track! So I figured out how to play a wooden bongo, which we call the 'wongo.' That added a nice Western clip-clop rhythm.
Steven: And as long as we had drums, we should have shakers, so we added a track with us keeping the beat with shakers, together.
Kristi: And you know what was missing then? A harmonica solo!
Steven: But you can’t just have an instrument solo, it has to be through the whole song, just low in the mix.
Kristi: So Steven laid down this amazing harmonica solo, and when we mixed it, we wove it with the manjo so it sounds like the musicians are taking turns soloing during the instrumental break.
Steven: By about three in the morning, we still had some mixing to do, but our simple song was now pretty complex, musically.
Fun fact about Drinkin’ ’Bout You
Steven: Originally, I assumed this would be a song we’d sell to a country artist. But once we had words down and started harmonizing, we fell in love with it.
Kristi: I can’t believe we thought it would be a throw-away! Now, it's one of our favorites.
Steven: We went from nothing to a full song in less than a day. All weekend, I kept walking around saying, “This song didn't exist yesterday / two days ago / three days ago.”
Calling all Luvers! Join us for an intimate Canopy + The Roots Show Feb. 14, 2026 in Dahlonega
You don't have to be part of a couple to be part of our Mayberry Wine community. We're excited to announce that we'll be returning to Canopy + the Roots for a special Valentine's Day show from 7:30pm-9pm. Bring your friends, lovers, family or just solo and we'll find you someone fun to hang with.
If you're traveling from elsewhere for the show, Dahlonega has so many cute B&Bs and cabins, not to mention an amazing downtown, nearby hikes and beautiful mountains, think about making a weekend of it! At our last CnR show, a trio of sweet ladies made it part of a girls' weekend.
We're working with the venue to create a really fun community experience for all y'all Luvers. Stay tuned for more info and ticket links.
Looking ahead
We're always looking to expand our reach and bring our music to more people. If you've got a venue or want to host a house party for Luvers, email us. And if you enjoy our music, please share it with your friends! We're on all the streamers and hear that every time someone follows our channel or makes a playlist with our songs, another folk angel gets its wings.