AS Throwback: When Charlie Worsham Remembered the Warm Summer Nights of His Youth on “Mississippi In July”

“I’ll play one that came from sitting in a hotel room in Key West,” Charlie Worsham began. “The songwriting gods were with us.” 

The year was 2013 and Worsham was busy doing a lot of reflecting, writing, and recording—that August, his debut studio album Rubberband dropped on Warner Bros. Nashville. Then, just a few weeks later, the Mississippi-born country artist stopped by the American Songwriter offices to deliver a brilliant performance of his nostalgic tune, “Mississippi In July.”

“The inspiration for this is that I’m 27 and grew up playing music—it’s all I’ve ever done,” Worsham explains in the video. “I moved away from my hometown of Grenada, Mississippi to go to college in Boston then moved straight to Nashville. Over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of my friends from high school get married and start to have families… the path that I’m on has delayed that part of my life a little bit.”

Thinking about the passage of time and the fleeting feelings of youth, Worsham started writing what would eventually become “Mississippi In July.” 

“Between the experiences of playing a friend’s wedding reception, talking to my folks, catching up on hometown gossip, and seeing in the paper that friends of mine got married, this idea was born.” 

Now, eight years later, Worsham has finally gotten a chance to catch up on “that part of his life.” This past April, the now-36-year-old and his wife, Kristen, welcomed their first child, Gabriel Thomas. He also recently returned to music—in July, he unveiled Sugarcane, his first new release since 2017. Featuring the same sincerity and craftsmanship as “Mississippi In July,” the new tunes are evidence that Worsham’s talents and knack for heartfelt tune-smithing are timeless. 

Watch the video of Charlie Worsham playing “Mississippi In July” above—check out his latest EP, Sugarcane, below: