Lainey Wilson falls “through a rabbit hole of nostalgia” as she pays tribute to one of the most beloved ballads of all time.

The reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year debuted the cinematic visual for her latest single, “Somewhere Over Laredo,” on Friday morning (June 20). Wilson teamed up with director and filmmaker TK McKamy — whose previous work includes projects with Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker — to capture the “surreal,” Wizard of Oz-inspired “adventure,” per a press release announcing the video’s premiere. As Wilson gazes out the window of her flight, she takes a dreamy journey to a Western land (her dog, Hippie Mae, makes an appearance chasing a butterfly).

Wilson teamed up with songwriters Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson and Andy Albert to pen “Somewhere Over Laredo.” The ballad nods to “the timeless classic ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’” famously performed by actress Judy Garland when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in 1939. It’s one of the new tracks that will appear on the deluxe edition of Wilson’s latest studio record, Whirlwind.

“I’m very proud of this song,” Wilson said in a recent interview with iHeartCountry. “I spend a lot of my time in the air on a plane, headed to the next town, to the next show, and I catch myself just looking out the window and dreaming, and thinking, and reminiscing, talking to God, (and) writing songs. And I feel like this song right here, it gave me an opportunity to step back into a pair of shoes that I wore years ago, and I got to tell a story from that perspective. So, and that’s what country music is, you know? It’s about taking you back to a certain time and place, and memory and feeling, and that’s what we wanted to capture in this song right here. And it was cool to be able to tip our hat at the same time to one of the most classic songs of all time.”

Wilson, who will soon have her own exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame, will release the deluxe edition of Whirlwind on August 22, marking one year since the original 14-track album made its debut. She’s also released “Bell Bottoms Up,” which takes on the same name as the bar she opened last year in Nashville, Tennessee.

WHIRLWIND DELUXE TRACK LIST

1. Keep Up With Jones

2. Country’s Cool Again

3. Good Horses (feat. Miranda Lambert)

4. Broken Hearts Still Beat

5. Whirlwind

6. Call A Cowboy

7. Hang Tight Honey

8. Bar In Baton Rouge

9. Counting Chickens

10. 4x4xU

11. Ring Finger

12. Middle Of It

13. Devil Don’t Go There

14. Whiskey Colored Crayon

15. Somewhere Over Laredo

16. King Ranch, King George, King James

17. Yesterday, All Day, Every Day

18. Bell Bottoms Up

19. Peace, Love and Cowboys

“These songs that are gonna be on the deluxe, they were all written after Whirlwind was out, so it was kind of like the next step, or what life I lived right after Whirlwind was released,” Wilson told iHeartCountry. “And so, it was cool to be able to tap into that, and also, it’s cool to be able to share that side, too, with the fans. And I’m really, really proud of this. I mean, I’m partial, but somehow, I feel like we continue to push it and level up, and I feel like even the people that I write songs with, they’re feeling the same way. We’re like, ‘OK, we really did it with this one,’ and we’re like, ‘OK, well how does it get better than this?’ And then it somehow does. But that’s a good place. That’s a very good place to be in.”

Watch the “Somewhere Over Laredo” music video here, and see Wilson’s upcoming tour dates below.

Tim Palmer

I had to watch it twice before I understood that they're passing the toilet paper across the country from west to east! Kind of fun!