on-this-day-george-strait-drops-carrying-your-love-with-me-album-1997

On This Day: George Strait Drops ‘Carrying Your Love With Me’ Album in 1997

Twenty-four years ago today country music legend George Strait released his 17th studio album, Carrying Your Love With Me.

By the time George Strait released, Carrying Your Love With Me he already had 16 mother albums under his belt. But that didn’t keep him from pouring his all into his new album. The album spent 57 weeks on the charts and peaked in the number one spot. It also produced four hit singles. “One Night at a Time,” “Round About Way,” and “Carrying Your Love With Me” all reached the number one spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Strait’s fourth single from the album, “Today My World Slipped Away,” peaked at number three.

And now the album is celebrating its 24th birthday! To celebrate, Strait shared a photo of the album cover on Instagram. Along with the photo, he wrote, “Happy Album Anniversary to ‘Carrying Your Love With Me’!”

What’s the Story Behind George Strait’s Song ‘Carrying Your Love With Me?’

Since its release in 1997, “Carrying Your Love With Me” has been an anthem for anyone in a long-distance relationship. And even if your partner is nearby, the song is super romantic. “Carrying Your Love With Me” is about a man who promises to carry the love of his partner with him even when he’s gone. During the song, George Strait sings, “Cause I’m carrying your love with me. West Virginia down to Tennessee. I’ll be moving with the good Lord’s speed. Carrying your love with me. It’s my strength for holding on. Every minute that I have to be gone. I’ll have everything I’ll ever need. I’m carrying your love with me.”

So, what’s the story behind the love song? “Carrying Your Love With Me” was co-written by songwriters Steve Bogard and Jeff Stevens. During an interview in 2011, Bogard talked about how the song came to be.

“‘Carrying Your Love With Me’ is a title Jeff Stevens mentioned to me that we didn’t write until about six months later,” said Bogard. “We just let it percolate, and finally I got the idea for the ‘beat-up leather bag’ metaphor.”

Letting the song “percolate” for a while definitely paid off. When the two did finally come together to write the song, they had a finished product in just a few hours.

“We pretty much wrote it in a few hours,” said Bogard. “Our publisher, Michael Knox, called Larry Willoughby, the A&R man for MCA, and he came over and heard it in my little office live. Jeff [was] singing and playing acoustic, and [I was] playing bass and singing harmony.”

The group loved the song and asked Bogard and Stevens to hold the song for George Strait.

“[They] put it on hold and made us promise not to play the demo, which we hadn’t done yet, for anyone until he could send it to George [Strait],” said Bogard. “I’m glad we did. It’s a great cut!”

“Carrying Your Love With Me” by George Strait