Shenandoah have selected “Then a Girl Walks In” as the newest single from their 2020 collaborations album, Every Road, which finds the ’90s mainstay act teaming with a group of nine duet partners from today’s country A-list.
“Then a Girl Walks In” — a team effort with Blake Shelton — is an ode to one of country music’s most beloved formats: a tender love song that repeats the title phrase as it applies to every phase of a couple’s life together.
First, a girl walks into a room, changing the life of the single guy who lays eyes on her for the first time. In the next verse, a girl walks in again, this time in a wedding gown, as the two get married. Finally, a little girl — the couple’s daughter — once again walks in, melting her dad’s heart with how much she looks like her mom.
“Blake Shelton is truly a big piece of this new record,” Shenandoah frontman Marty Raybon reflects to People. “His vocals are as solid as a slab of concrete. This would not be a ‘today’s country music’ duets album without him being a part of it.”
Plus, Shelton has recently proven his knack for servicing hit love songs to country radio: His singles “Nobody But You” and “Happy Anywhere,” both duets with his pop star fiancée Gwen Stefani, became back-to-back No. 1 hits. The singer is currently trying for a third consecutive radio hit with a love song, as his romantic “Minimum Wage” was inside the Billboard Hot Country’s Top 30 as of the chart dated March 26.
In addition to teaming up with Shelton, Shenandoah tapped country stalwarts like Luke Bryan, Lady A, Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley and the Zac Brown Band to help create Every Road. They also enlisted some newer stars, like Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde and Cody Johnson, to round out the album’s all-star tracklist.
Shenandoah enjoyed a hot streak of radio singles in the late ’80s and early ’90s, sending five songs to No. 1 at country radio over the course of their career. However, the band hasn’t had a Top 10 hit since 1995, when they released “Damned if I Don’t (Danged If I Do),” off their In the Vicinity of the Heart album.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shenandoah have had to postpone the album’s Every Road Tour, which they initially planned to launch in 2020. They rescheduled dates for 2021, however, with upcoming dates set to take place in Texas in early April.
