Banjo

This is the first single by American Country music band Rascal Flatts, off their eighth studio album and released to Country radio on January 9, 2012. Rascal Flatt's Jay DeMarcus explained the song's meaning as, "a sentiment about getting away from it all, getting away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and sort of breaking out and finding a spot way out in the country and drivin' and drivin' and drivin' until you go so far you start to hear a banjo."

The banjo is a four or five stringed plucked instrument with a long neck and circular drum-type sound box, which is usually associated with country, folk, Irish traditional and bluegrass music. It originated in Africa as a nine-stringed instrument with a gourd body and a wooden stick neck, before making its way to America, where it has long been associated with the culture of Southern African-Americans. President Thomas Jefferson remarked on the skill of black slaves playing the instrument in the late 18th century, referring to it as a "banjar."

The banjo was popularized by the minstrel shows of the 19th century. Joel Walker Sweeney, an American minstrel performer from Virginia, was the first white man to play the banjo on stage. He replaced the gourd with the drum-like sound box and reduced the strings from nine to five. Sweeney's group, the American Virginia Minstrels, introduced the banjo to Britain in 1846, where they became very popular in music halls.

This celebration of the out-of-the-way getaways that refresh us all, features Nashville musician Ilya Toshinsky on the five-stringed instrument that lends the song its title. Vocalist Gary LeVox said of their guest banjoist, "That is the hillbilliest Russian I've ever heard in my life!"