The three singers with Georgia roots release a version of Croce’s 1972 song “Walkin’ Back to Georgia” to raise funds for music education
Last May, Butch Walker, Elizabeth Cook, and Katie Pruitt — all of them with Georgia roots — performed Jim Croce’s “Walkin’ Back to Georgia” at a Nashville benefit concert for the Georgia Music Foundation. The one-time-only collab went over so well that later this summer, the trio rendezvoused at Walker’s Tennessee studio to record. “Walkin’ Back to Georgia” arrives today on New West Records.
“My parents used to listen to Jim Croce all the time in the house and I realized how they would always play ‘Walkin Back to Georgia’ on summer days when we were living in Cartersville,” Walker says. “It brought a rush of memories back, and when we were getting ready to soundcheck I hit up Katie and Elizabeth and asked if they knew the song. Needless to say, they said ‘Yes!’ and we were off and running. We thought it went over really well, so we all agreed that recording a version of it for the cause was the right thing to do.”
All proceeds from the recording will benefit the Georgia Music Foundation, the non-profit that supports music education programs in the Peach State. Walker is from Cartersville, Pruitt hails from Atlanta, and Cook, while born in Florida, went to school in Georgia. “The Georgia public school system changed my life,” Cook says, “and I hope they can keep music in schools because music is the art of everything.”
Walker, who released his new solo album Glenn earlier this year, produced Cook’s 2020 album Aftermath, which RS named the No. 2 best country album of that year. Pruitt’s album Expectations, also released in 2020, was No. 3.
“Walkin’ Back to Georgia” first appeared on Croce’s 1972 album You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.