"Rollin' with the Flow" is a song first released 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

T.G. Sheppard William Neal Browder (born July 20, 1944) is an American country music singer-songwriter, known professionally as T. G. Sheppard. He had 14 number-one hits on the US country charts between 1974 and 1986, including eight consecutive number ones ...

, in 1974 on the B-side of a single and in 1975 on his debut album ''T.G. Sheppard''. It is better known for a version released by

Charlie Rich Charles Allan Rich (December 14, 1932July 25, 1995) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. His eclectic style of music was often difficult to classify, encompassing the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country music, country, sou ...

in 1977. The Rich single was his eighth Number One on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles charts. "Rollin' with the Flow" also crossed over into the top-40 of the

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

charts and narrowly missed the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number 101 on the

Bubbling Under the Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

chart. The song returned to the country music charts in 2008, with a version by

Mark Chesnutt Mark Nelson Chesnutt (born September 6, 1963) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Between 1990 and 1999, he had his greatest chart success recording for Universal Music Group Nashville's MCA and Decca branches, with a total of ei ...

reaching number 25 on the ''Billboard ''

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 ...

chart.

Content

The mid-tempo song is sung from the perspective of a man who, despite being at an age when most of his peers have started raising families (at least 30 years old according to the second line), still lives a hard-partying, rock-and-roll lifestyle more in tune with far younger men. The song also makes reference to his

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

faith, noting that he knows he cannot continue like this in heaven (thus why he does it while he is still alive) and that he will eventually be forgiven, not just by

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, but his "crazy friends" as well.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Mark Chesnutt version

In 2007, country music artist

recorded the song as the title track for an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

. It was released on June 24, 2008. Chesnutt's version became his first Top 40 hit since "I'm a Saint" in late 2004-early 2005, peaking at number 25.

Chart performance

Kurt Vile version

American indie rock artist

Kurt Vile Kurt Samuel Vile (born January 3, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is known for his solo work and as the former lead guitarist of rock band the War on Drugs. Both in the studio and during li ...

covered the song on his 2018 album, ''

Bottle It In ''Bottle It In'' is the eighth studio album by American musician Kurt Vile, released on October 12, 2018 through Matador Records. It features contributions from Kim Gordon, Cass McCombs, Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, and Mary Lattimore. The album ...

''.

References

{{Authority control 1977 singles 2007 singles T. G. Sheppard songs Charlie Rich songs Mark Chesnutt songs Song recordings produced by Billy Sherrill Epic Records singles Lofton Creek Records singles Songs written by Jerry Hayes (songwriter) 1974 songs