A song this emotional doesn’t happen by accident.

When Lainey Wilson first laid hands on “Somewhere Over Laredo,” she knew it wasn’t going to be just another track in the queue. This was the one she’d have to scrap for, and scrap hard. Turns out, even when you’re a Grammy-winning force lighting up country radio, not everyone immediately sees the picture you’re trying to paint. But Wilson wasn’t about to let this one slip away without a fight.

“We recorded it several different times,” she said in a recent Behind the Song interview with Amazon Music. “Sometimes you just have to fight for the best idea. You have to fight for what you think is the vision for the song.”

And that vision? A sweeping, dust-kissed ballad full of longing and magic that nods to Judy Garland’s iconic “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” while standing on its own as a uniquely country tale of love and heartbreak under Texas skies. “Somewhere Over Laredo” isn’t just another clever title. It’s a heartfelt homage to dreamers, drifters, and small-town stories told from 30,000 feet in the air.

Lainey, 33, co-wrote the song with Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson, and Andy Albert. From the beginning, the group set out to tap into the emotional undercurrent of songs like “Rainbow” while planting both boots firmly in the Lone Star State. That blend of classic Americana with cowboy heartbreak? That’s Lainey Wilson’s bread and butter. And the way she sells the line “Born to get gone from the get-go” feels like a steel-stringed arrow straight to the heart.

The bridge even sneaks in subtle melodic lifts from Garland’s classic, making the song a bittersweet wink to every dreamer who’s ever looked out a window and wondered what if. It’s got just enough twang to stay country but layered with something richer, a kind of cinematic scope that wraps you up in it.

When Lainey shared the song with fans, the reaction was immediate. One listener wrote, “Judy is screaming with excitement somewhere over the rainbow!!!!” Another said, “First time I heard it I fell in love with it. So glad you worked so hard to make it right because it’s perfect!!”

And that’s the thing. It is perfect. Not because it slid through the studio in one smooth take, but because it didn’t. Lainey had to rework it, rerecord it, reframe it until every note matched the picture she had in her head.

Wilson also revealed how the song allowed her to step back into a version of herself from years ago, slipping on a pair of dusty boots worn from chasing neon dreams. There’s no doubt this song pulls from a place deep in her bones, a girl from Baskin, Louisiana, who once dreamed big from the cab of a truck, now turning those dreams into music that cuts to the soul.

“Somewhere Over Laredo” might not be the flashiest release on Wilson’s roster, but it’s quietly becoming one of the most beloved. It’s nostalgic without pandering, cinematic without losing the dirt under its nails. And it reminds us all why Lainey Wilson is the real deal, someone who doesn’t just perform country music but lives and bleeds it.

Turns out that fight was worth it. Because now, somewhere over Laredo, a cowboy memory is breaking hearts in all the best ways.