a very bluegrass opening, or very Appalachian opening, as Alison says, with the modal sound. And Alison wrote this beautiful melody that took me literally a month to learn. Because if you listen to it, it sounds normal, but if you listen again, there's a lot of strange pushes and pulls and slides and strange things. And I kind of insisted,  Just keep playing that. Don't riff on that. Just keep playing that,  because that takes a while to get into your head. And when it gets in, you can't get it out.

Brown: It's got a little back step here and there, as one might say in this genre. But yeah, Steve was like,  Let's keep it a secret for the listener.  Like, they should, when they put this on, think it's some Appalachian tune that they just aren't familiar with, and keep keep the secret of the song as long as possible.

 Old Town Road' single cover

Then you managed, after all the vocal fun, to have a banjo climax toward the end.

Martin: Yeah. Oh my God. Alison, it wasn't double time, it was quadruple time, right?

Brown: It was only double time. That was enough.

Martin: Yeah. My God. I thought it really lifted the song, as it builds to this big climax. And then, I'm not sure if that going to the major at the end there is in the song or if it's you guys.

Brown: It's not in the original version; the original version just stays on the same chords. But putting that bold four chord in there, where it just goes to this four major chord, it just says bluegrass. And then Steve's idea of changing the lyric right there to say  Bluegrass Road  instead of  Old Town Road  was great, too. It gives you this moment of the shining star of bluegrass music (McCoury) stepping forward.