Lainey Wilson Breathes Life Into A Track Nearly Two Decades Old With "I Would If I Could"

The reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year is helping to spotlight those grinding on Music Row.

Apple music unveiled “I Would If I Could,” performed by Grammy-nominee and CMA’s recently crowned Entertainer of the Year, Lainey Wilson, as the fifth release of its Lost & Found program, which spotlights unreleased tracks written by some of the best songwriters in Nashville and re-recorded by today’s biggest artists, all in Spatial Audio.

“I Would If I Could” was originally written in 1996 by award-winning songwriters Skip Ewing and Dean Dillon, in what was their only collaboration together. On an upcoming episode of Lost & Found Radio with Lori McKenna on Apple Music Country, Dean Dillon recalls “Skip and I had never written before, I don't know who had the melody or who had the idea, but when we finished, I thought we had a great song. There was more to it than a lot of other stuff I've written, but for whatever reason, and you know this yourself, it happens a lot. They just get pitched a couple times and that's it. You never hear about them again. And then somebody somewhere dug this out of the trash can somewhere.” Similarly, Skip Ewing tells Lori McKenna about finding out Lainey Wilson was going to record their demo, saying, “I was stunned by who had decided this was the song for them, because I adore her. She's got kind of a no-nonsense, real earthy space to her.”

Lainey, also recently sat down with Kelleigh Bannen, On Today's Country Radio to chat about the opportunity to breathe new life into a song written almost two decades ago/

"I was four years old. I was probably in preschool, at Baskin Elementary, probably picking my nose and everything else. That's what I was doing at four [years old]," Lainey laughs. This town is full of so many songs that will never see the light of day. And these songwriters in this town, they pour their heart and soul into every single song that they write. And I understand. I do the same exact thing. And so whenever I heard about this opportunity… I'm a songwriter first and foremost, and I want to be known as a songwriter, and I want to shine light on songs that just for some crazy reason, didn't see the light of day. Let's bring it to the light," Lainey continued.

Steadfast in lifting others in her community, Lainey also touched on why she chose this song as her program offering. "It spoke to me immediately and Anna Weisband and Tom Luteran over at Sony, I believe they were going through the back catalog and just came across this song, and I just knew, I was like, this is it. It just felt classic. And just like you said too, it was coming from a dude's perspective. But I love showing the other side of that. That way people can feel it from a different angle."

"When you listen to the first line of the song, it is classic… And it feels like a song that should already be a song. There's just a magic in it and this is the only song that [Dean Dillon and Skip Ewing] ever wrote together… It’s wild. Two of the most incredible songwriters that have ever existed. I look up to them a whole lot. And I wanted to record something that was done a long time ago, that still stood the test of time, is timeless; this melody. And too, the words are incredible, the lyrics are incredible, but you don't even have to know what it's saying to be in it… That's when you know it's a good song."

Lainey brings her signature tone and flair to the track, truly making it a classic in the making.