Hit the Ground Running

This mellow guitar track is the title song of Newton Faulkner's sixth album. He told The Independent during a track-by-track interview: "It's the first track that made everything else lean the way it did production wise and vocally. It's the first thing that I recorded that fully made sense, and when I played it to people they got excited, which is always great. 'Hit The Ground Running'" as a track is very minimalist, much more soul-y than anything I've done in the past and pushes my vocals to the max which is something I really wanted to do. It's one of the flagship tracks for both grooves and vocals, which is what I focused on above anything else on this record. It's got a really nice little groove and the vocal is one of the hardest things to sing that I have ever written, but hopefully is nice to listen to however challenging it is to do."

The phrase "hit the ground running" meaning to start something and proceed at a fast pace, dates back to the late 19th century. The origin of the term may come from troops dropped into a combat zone or from Pony Express riders avoiding delay when they changed mounts. An early citation of it is found in a widely syndicated newspaper story headed 'King Of All The Liars' dated April 23, 1895. "I turned to run and figured to a dot when he shot. As he cracked loose I jumped way up in the air and did a split, just like what these show gals does, only mine wasn't on the ground by six foot. The bullet went under me. I knew he had five more cartridges, so I hit the ground running and squatted low down when his gun barked a second time." (Source of quote The Phrase Finder)