Reba McEntire Knows the Right Song When She Hears It

Reba McEntire doesn’t always have a hand in writing her songs, but she always connects with them on a personal level. Choosing the right song is critical to creating an album that reflects her as an artist, so how does she know which tunes to record?

"When I hear songs it’s like, 'That’s what I was looking for,'” she says via Big Machine. "I don’t know what I’m looking for; I know when I hear it, though. Just like I know when I see it… 'That’s the dress I’m looking for! That’s the dress I want,' or 'That’s the boots I want,' because they feel good. You know it when you hear it."

She definitely knew it when she heard “Just Like Them Horses” for the first time, a song she ended up recording as a tribute to her late father, Clark, after she had it played at his funeral in 2014.

"The minute I heard it, I knew I wanted it played at Daddy’s funeral. When my producer Tony Brown heard it, he loved it so much that he insisted on putting it on the album,” she says.

The artist also shot a deeply personal video for the song in honor of her father, filmed on her family farm and featuring her mother.

"We shot the entire video in Chockie, Okla., on the McEntire home place. Those old hills mean a lot to me. I lived there 21 years and they still call me back time after time,” she recalls.

McEntire will spend part of 2016 performing in her Las Vegas residency with Brooks & Dunn, titled Reba, Brooks & Dunn: Together in Vegas. It was recently extended for a second time, adding nine dates in July 2016 on top of the six in May that were added previously.

See Reba McEntire Through the Years:

Know the Song That Started It All for Reba? Find Out: