“My fans are truly amazing…and they tell me the truth,” Hayes shares. “When they like a song I hear about it, and when they don’t, I know I will hear about that too! I wouldn’t be the artist I am today without their input. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
The new song was released as Hayes’ current single, “Y’all Life,” continues to climb the charts at country radio.
When performing the song live over the summer, Hayes shared the story behind the song from the stage.
“This song I actually wrote way before ‘Fancy Like’ and all that stuff. It’s one of my kid’s favorites and really I think the reason they love it is it’s got a dog bark in it…it’s called ‘That Dog Will Hunt,’” he explained. “Where I grew up, if you took a bite of a burger and it was good, you said, ‘that dog will hunt.’ If a really pretty girl walked by and you saw her, you were like, ‘that dog will hunt.’ If you caught a big fish, it was, ‘boom! That dog will hunt.’ We just said that all the time, so I wrote a song about it and it’s kinda in honor of an old dog of mine named Skeeter. He was a blood hound and I’m not gonna tell you how he died ‘cause it was kinda said, but he was a good dog and he’s in here.”
Arriving on International Dog Day, “That Dog’ll Hunt” was inspired by a phase Hayes often said while growing up in Alabama. It also serves as a tribute to his late dog, Skeeter.
In 1987, for example, the New York Times ran an opinion piece which was critical of President Ronald Reagan’s plan for Nicaragua. The article was of course titled, “That Dog Won’t Hunt” and read, in part, “Either way, as Lyndon Johnson used to say of losing propositions, “That dog won’t hunt.”
Clinton, originally from Arkansas, often used the folksy saying in his conversations with the press and with other politicians. Speaking at a press conference before the 1992 Democratic National Convention, Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, used the expression to wave off concerns about their candidacy:
The phrase likely originated in the South and is often traced back to the state of Texas. It’s said to be an old hunting expression. Of course, for most hunters, any dog who won’t hunt is useless.
“That dog won’t hunt” is a dismissive phrase, used to mean that a particular idea or approach is going to fail.
By extension, a political plan that won’t succeed is just as useless as a dog that won’t hunt. Some people believe that the expression grew out of the older saying, “that cock won’t fight.”
I have found an isolated 19th-century occurrence of the phrase that dog won’t hunt in the following from The Globe (Washington, D.C.) of Tuesday 15th August 1843:
2 Texts 1 and 3 from The Times (The Tuttle Times in 1907) contain numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes.
1 This refers to Robert Tyler (1816-1877), the eldest son of John Tyler (1790-1862). John Tyler was the tenth President of the United States (1841-45), and, in 1843, Robert Tyler sought in vain the presidential nomination.
The other early occurrences of the phrase that dog won’t hunt, and variants, that I have found, are from The Times 2 (Tuttle, Oklahoma):
With reference to a dog used for hunting game, the colloquial American-English phrase that dog won’t hunt, and its variants, are used to express the opinion that a particular plan or approach will not succeed. —Synonym: that cock won’t fight.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (5/11) Movie CLIP – Dog Will Hunt (1986) HD
Written by Hayes with Cameron Montgomery and Melissa Fuller, and produced by Hayes with frequent collaborator Joe Thibodeau, with executive producer Shane McAnally, the new track was released due to fan demand after a video of Hayes performing the track surfaced online earlier this summer.
“My fans are truly amazing…and they tell me the truth,” Hayes shares. “When they like a song I hear about it, and when they don’t, I know I will hear about that too! I wouldn’t be the artist I am today without their input. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Arriving on International Dog Day, “That Dog’ll Hunt” was inspired by a phase Hayes often said while growing up in Alabama. It also serves as a tribute to his late dog, Skeeter.
When performing the song live over the summer, Hayes shared the story behind the song from the stage.
“This song I actually wrote way before ‘Fancy Like’ and all that stuff. It’s one of my kid’s favorites and really I think the reason they love it is it’s got a dog bark in it…it’s called ‘That Dog Will Hunt,’” he explained. “Where I grew up, if you took a bite of a burger and it was good, you said, ‘that dog will hunt.’ If a really pretty girl walked by and you saw her, you were like, ‘that dog will hunt.’ If you caught a big fish, it was, ‘boom! That dog will hunt.’ We just said that all the time, so I wrote a song about it and it’s kinda in honor of an old dog of mine named Skeeter. He was a blood hound and I’m not gonna tell you how he died ‘cause it was kinda said, but he was a good dog and he’s in here.”
The new song was released as Hayes’ current single, “Y’all Life,” continues to climb the charts at country radio.
The father of six will soon embark on his first-ever headlining arena tour, Glad You’re Here. The upcoming trek is named after the book Hayes co-wrote with his best friend, Craig Allen Cooper. Released earlier this year, the book tells the story of Hayes’ track, “Craig,” and follows his story to finding Christ.
The Glad You’re Here Tour: 9/29 – 1st Summit Arena, Johnstown, PA 9/30 – Visions Veterans Memorial Arena, Binghamton, NY 10/1 – Mountain Health Arena, Huntington, WV 10/6 – Cross Insurance Arena, Portland, ME 10/7 – Santander Arena, Reading, PA 10/8 – DCU Center, Worcester, MA 10/9 – After Hours Concerts at The Meadow Event Park, Doswell, VA 10/13 – Dow Event Center Arena, Saginaw, MI 10/14 – Corbin Arena, Corbin, KY 10/15 – Covelli Centre, Youngstown, OH 10/20 – Resch Center, Green Bay, WI 10/21 – Alliant Energy Powerhouse, Cedar Rapids, IA 10/22 – Danny Sanford Premiere Center, Sioux Falls, SD 11/5 – Mechanics Bank Arena, Bakersfield, CA 11/7 – The Greek, Los Angeles, CA 11/10 – Spokane Arena, Spokane, WA 11/11 – Theater of the Clouds, Portland, OR 11/12 – Angel Of the Winds Arena, Everett, WA