"River of Love" is a song written by

Billy Burnette Dorsey William Burnette III (born May 8, 1953 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was part of the band Fleetwood Mac from 1987 to 1995. Burnette also had a brief career in acting. Family ba ...

, Shawn Camp and

Dennis Morgan Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner, December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame. According to one obi ...

, and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

George Strait George Harvey Strait Sr. (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. Strait is considered one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. In the 1980s, he was credited for ...

. It was released in November 2008 as the third single from the album ''

Troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

''. The 87th single of his career, it is also his 80th Top Ten on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' country charts, as well as his 44th and final Number One hit to date.

Content

"River of Love" is a moderate up-tempo, with steel-string acoustic guitar and

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

accompaniment. Shawn Camp, Billy Burnette and Dennis Morgan, who wrote the song, all sing backing vocals on it as well. The lyrics use a river as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

for love ("Let's go rollin' on the river of love"). According to ''

Country Weekly ''Nash Country Weekly'' was an American lifestyle weekly magazine about country artists and their music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site ''Nash Country Daily''. Overvie ...

'', Morgan had approached Camp with a melody in his mind. Camp then built on the melody by playing along with a

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

that

Cowboy Jack Clement Jack Henderson Clement (April 5, 1931 – August 8, 2013) was an American singer, songwriter, and record and film producer. Biography Early life Raised and educated in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, Clement was performing at an early age, ...

had given him, when Burnette joined in on his own ukulele, and they came up with the line "river of love". According to Camp, "It was just such an infectious groove, and it just kind of rolled out. The whole song was just two

chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord (as ...

and that lick."

Critical reception

Matt Bjorke of Roughstock, a country music review site, gave "River of Love" a mixed review. Although he called it an "undoubtedly fun song" and said "it's all about feel and groove", he added that "there's nothing really interesting about the song, other than the spirited steel guitar solo." Brady Vercher, in his review of ''Troubadour'' for Engine 145, described the song as having an "island vibe" similar to a

Kenny Chesney Kenneth Arnold Chesney (born March 26, 1968) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has recorded more than 20 albums and has produced more than 40 Top 10 singles on the US ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' Hot Coun ...

song, calling it one of the weakest tracks on the album.

Chart performance

"River of Love" debuted at number 45 on the ''

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

charts dated for the week of November 22, 2008. The song became Strait's 44th and final ''Billboard'' Number One on the chart week of April 18, 2009. One week later, it fell to number 9, taking the biggest fall from number 1 on that chart since

Carrie Underwood Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of ''American Idol'' in 2005. Her single "Inside Your Heaven" made her the only country artist to debut atop the ''Bill ...

's "

So Small "So Small" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Carrie Underwood. It was released in August 2007 as the first single from her 2007 album ''Carnival Ride''. Underwood co-wrote this song with Hillary Lindsey and Luke L ...

" fell from number 1 to number 10 on the chart week of December 22, 2007.

Year-end charts

References

External links

Lyrics
at CMT.com {{George Strait 2000s singles 2008 singles 2008 songs George Strait songs Songs written by Shawn Camp (musician) Song recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer) Songs written by Dennis Morgan (songwriter) MCA Nashville Records singles Songs written by Billy Burnette