Tim McGraw Returns With Gentle New Song ‘I Called Mama’

Tim McGraw has returned with the timely message song “I Called Mama,” released just before Mother’s Day. The new track is McGraw’s first new music since returning to Big Machine Records, with whom he previously released the albums Two Lanes of Freedom, Sundown Heaven Town, and Damn Country Music.

Written by Lance Miller, Marv Green, and Jimmy Yeary, “I Called Mama” is a gently ebbing ballad led by acoustic guitar and washes of pedal steel. More than a Mother’s Day song, it’s about not putting things off until it’s too late — in the opening verse, McGraw’s narrator is given some devastating that causes him to have an epiphany about being present in the moment. “I stopped off at a Texaco, bought a Slim Jim and a Coke/Parked out by the water just the watch the river flow,” he sings in the chorus, before pulling out his phone and calling his mother.

“I Called Mama” is McGraw’s first release of 2020 and follows a series of one-off releases in 2019 including the Shy Carter collaboration “Way Down” and a cover of the Cars’ “Drive.” His most recent studio full-length was the 2017 duets project The Rest of Our Life with wife Faith Hill.

McGraw is currently set to launch his Here on Earth Tour, featuring guests Midland and Ingrid Andress, on July 10th. In September, he has a pair of stadium shows in Los Angeles and Philadelphia which he’ll co-headline with Luke Combs.