Logan Mize celebrates his small-town background in unique style with a upcoming album, using Welcome to Prairieville as a tribute to the American heartland. And on the new track, “George Strait Songs,” he salutes its unofficial soundtrack.
Mize grew up in Kansas, and years ago the guitar slinging singer-songwriter teamed up with his buddy, Blake Chaffin, to write songs about their home state — dreaming up the fictional town, Prairieville, as a setting. Each track on the upcoming album is sung about that town and the lives it supports, with Mize creating a patchwork quilt of the world he knows best — and that includes its music.
Written by Mize and Chaffin, he says “George Strait Songs” is like an overview of the town they imagined, introducing a tight-knit community and a way of life that’s still tied to the land. With a boot-stomping, country-rock sound featuring thumping drums, steel guitar and a vocal drenched in flyover-state pride, Mize reminds fans that places like Prairieville are still out there, continuing the traditions they held onto for decades. And they’re still listening to the King of Country.
“Blake Chaffin actually wrote ‘George Strait Songs’ by himself at first,” Mize tells Sounds Like Nashville. “He used to be part of a songwriting group that would send out a ‘word/phrase of the week,’ and you have to write a song around that word.
“Well, one week, the phrase was ‘Wizard of Oz,’ which coincidentally, just happened to be a Kansas-themed idea, and at this point, we had been writing songs about Prairieville for years,” Mize continues. “So, he wrote this tune called ‘George Strait Songs,’ put ‘the wonderful Wizard of Oz’ in the lyric, and then he showed it to me. I really loved the idea, overall, and I was like, ‘Hey! This is really cool, but there’s just some stuff that I’d change – little things we could get rid of and just trim the fat – if you’ll let me have this song.’
“He agreed, so I changed up the chords and switched out some lyrics – no more ‘wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ obviously – but the bulk of the song was already there,” Mize continues. “So, essentially, what started out as just a writing exercise turned into what ended up being the perfect intro to this decades-long narrative we’ve been crafting together. In my mind, I think of it like this: if ‘Welcome to Prairieville’ was a musical, ‘George Straight Songs’ would be the opening theme – like, ‘here’s something to get you in the Prairieville head space,’ you know?”
Helping putting an image to that headspace, Mize has also filmed a music video for “George Strait Songs.” The clip introduce the imaginary town, with the country singer giving viewers a locals-only tour — with its sleepy main drag and amber fields of grain in their full glory. All in all, it makes Mize’s fictional home feel all too real.
Logan Mize will release Welcome to Prairieville on October 1. With 11 songs in total, he co-wrote all but one. He recently celebrated his first Gold-certified song, “Better Off Gone.”
Here’s the full Welcome to Prairieville track listing:
- George Strait Songs (writers: Blake Chaffin, Logan Mize)
- Welcome To Prairieville (writers: Blake Chaffin, Logan Mize)
- River Road (writers: Blake Chaffin, Logan Mize, Tyler Johnson)
- Wine at the Church, Beer at the Bar (writers: Blake Chaffin, Logan Mize, Jason Blaine)
- Follow Your Heart (writers: Lynn Hutton, Logan Mize)
- I Need Mike (writer: Blake Chaffin)
- If You Get Lucky (writers: Blake Chaffin, Logan Mize, Daniel Agee)
- Tell the Truth (writers: Blake Chaffin, Logan Mize)
- We Ain’t Broke (writers: Blake Chaffin, Logan Mize)
- I Still Miss You (writers: Blake Chaffin, Logan Mize, Jill Martin)
- It’s About Time (writer: Logan Mize)