"Southern Girl" is a song written by

Jaren Johnston Jaren Ray Johnston (born October 4, 1980) is an American country music and rock singer and songwriter. He is a member of the group The Cadillac Three. Career Jaren is a multiple time Grammy nominated songwriter and producer. Johnston was former ...

Rodney Clawson Rodney Dale Clawson (born in Gruver, Texas, United States) is an American country music songwriter. Clawson has written singles recorded by Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Faith Hill, George Strait and Luke Bryan, among others. Biography Cla ...

, and

Lee Thomas Miller Lee Thomas Miller (born in Nicholasville, Kentucky) is an American country music songwriter and occasional record producer. His credits include 7 number one country hits: " The Impossible" (Joe Nichols), "The World", "I'm Still a Guy" and "Perfect ...

and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

Tim McGraw Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. He has released 17 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, five for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those albums have reached number one on ...

. It was released in July 2013 as the fourth single from McGraw's album ''

Two Lanes of Freedom ''Two Lanes of Freedom'' is the twelfth studio album by the American country music singer Tim McGraw. It was released on February 5, 2013, as his first album for Big Machine Records following twenty years with Curb Records. He co-produced the albu ...

''.

Content

The song is about girls from the south and how the narrator finds them attractive.

Critical reception

Billy Dukes of ''

Taste of Country Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

'' gave the song 4.5 stars out of 5, saying that " tsoverall feel is one that’s repeated each summer, but few have brought it back as effortlessly as McGraw in recent years." Giving it a "B", Joseph Hudak of ''

Country Weekly ''Country Weekly'' (known as ''Nash Country Weekly'' from 2015–16) was an American magazine about country music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site Nash Country Daily. O ...

'' gave it a "B" grade, and said that "

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

d all feel a little trite and disposable if tdidn't have a monster groove to prop it up." He also said that the song was "utterly singable" and "the ideal summer anthem".

Music video

The accompanying music video for the song was directed by

Shane Drake Shane C. Drake is an American music video director and producer originally from Redding, California. He has directed videos for many artists, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Avril Lavigne, Trivium, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at th ...

and premiered in July 2013.

Chart performance

"Southern Girl" debuted at number 57 on the US ''

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 advertis ...

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since October 20, 2012, although the magazine also retrospectively recognizes the Hot Country Songs charts from January 20, 1990, through October 13, 2012, ...

chart for the week of July 13, 2013. It also debuted at number 44 on

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 along with digital sales and streaming. ...

. It debuted at number 100 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the week of August 10, 2013. It also debuted at number 96 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...

for the week of August 24, 2013. As of January 2014, the song has over sold 526,000 copies in the United States.

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Tim McGraw singles 2013 singles Tim McGraw songs Songs written by Rodney Clawson Songs written by Lee Thomas Miller Song recordings produced by Byron Gallimore Song recordings produced by Tim McGraw Music videos directed by Shane Drake Big Machine Records singles 2013 songs Songs written by Jaren Johnston Songs about the American South