Kentucky Life’s New Theme Song: ‘Kentucky Bound’

Kentucky Life has a new theme song this year, “Kentucky Bound.” The song was written by Greg Austin, Ray Adams, and Keith Barrett in the late 1980s, and the Greg Austin Band put together a new version of the song for the show.

Greg Austin, a singer/songwriter who Flynn described as his oldest and best friend, has been playing music for 41 years. Austin said the first song he and Flynn wrote together was “Tip Your Bottle.” Flynn thought “Kentucky Bound,” a song about being on the road, was the “perfect song for us to kick off ‘Kentucky Life,” he said.

For the new version, recorded at the KET sound studio in Lexington, Ray Adams and Austin brought in “some of the old musicians that have worked with us over the years and a couple of new guys,” said Adams.
The musicians for the session:

• Dwight Dunlap, on drums: he has played with Exile
• Curt Chapman on bass: he has played with J.D. Crowe and band
• J.D. Miller, on keyboard: he wrote the Nationwide Insurance jingle and is honored for his gospel music work
• Zach Lafferty, on acoustic guitar and Telecaster guitar: a young musician who impressed Adams
• Greg Erwin, on slide guitar: “I thought he’d be perfect for the project,” said Adams
• Ethan Vivian, on banjo: “Banjo drives the song so we had to have a good banjo player,” Adams said

This segment is part of Kentucky Life episode #2203, which originally aired on October 15, 2016. Watch the full episode.