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Thirty-five years after Shenandoah first released “Sunday In The South,” the band teamed up with Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean for a song and video remake.

Earlier this year, Shenandoah, led by original members Marty Raybon and Mike McGuire, teamed up with new era greats Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean to recut their 1989 chart-topping hit “Sunday In The South.”

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In an interview with Country Rebel, Raybon recalled how the collaboration first came about. He told the outlet that while chatting with Luke Bryan during a surprise appearance at a No. 1 party, he mentioned that Shenandoah had just finished re-recording “Sunday In The South” and invited Luke to lay down some vocals for the track.

Jason Aldean was also in attendance and overheard the conversation between Luke and Marty.

“Aldean said, ‘If he’s doing it, I’m doing it,'” according to Raybon. 

The trio started working out the logistics, with Luke and Jason going into different studios to record their parts in the months that followed. The result was a priceless collaboration between some of country music’s greatest talents.

“It was just a blessing for Luke and Jason to be a part of it,” Raybon said.

Luke and Jason’s enthusiasm about being a part of a “Sunday In The South” remake isn’t something that Marty Raybon takes for granted. He likens their fondness for Shenandoah music to how he felt about George Jones and Merle Haggard when his career was taking off.

“I remember how it was growing up…having the love of George Jones and Merle Haggard. You look at Haggard and Jones and you see them as the epitome…they were country music. They were who they were. You just don’t think of yourself that way,” Marty said, referring to the way newer generations of artists admire Shenandoah.

Shenandoah was founded 40 years ago in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Marty Raybon and Mike McGuire are the only founding members still a part of the group, though Marty stepped away for 17 years. His hiatus was due to burnout caused in part by a lawsuit over the band’s name.

“We got tired of being sued over the name and working like mercenaries to pay settlements just to keep our name. We were burned out,” Marty recalled. “We were working just to pay attorneys and settlements.”

He began to question his priorities and made a decision to walk away in 1997, which led to the disbanding of the group.

“We were away from our kids and families just for this? That ain’t me. I can’t do that,” he said.

In hindsight, it was perhaps the best decision for the band who split just two years after winning a Grammy for their collab with Alison Krauss on “Vicinity Of The Heart.” In the years that followed, they often talked about reuniting, but the timing never seemed quite right.

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But in 2014, at the height of the bro-country era and when the genre was seeing a massive resurgence in the popularity of ’90s country music, the time seemed right. Raybon and Shenandoah reunited and have enjoyed a “second career” in the years since.

“God is blessing us, and we know it. We’re just doing everything we can to live at the foot of the cross,” he said.

Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan join Shenandoah for a “Sunday In The South” video remake.

Marty Raybon, Mike McGuire, Jason Aldean, and Luke Bryan came together to film a new video for “Sunday In The South.” Staying true to the nostalgic feel of the 1989 video, the new one includes updated footage of iconic Muscle Shoals landmarks that fans may recognize from the original. But, unlike the original, the “dinner on the grounds” crowd shown gathered on the courthouse lawn wasn’t included in the remake. That crowd originally included two of Marty’s sons (the third hadn’t been born yet) who are now grown.

Ahead of the video’s release, Raybon told Country Rebel, “It’s not going to be the same because the place has changed, but certainly the premise of it has not. We’re going to try to stick to it absolutely as close as we can to the original.”

They perfectly captured the essence of the song and the nostalgia of the original video as Marty, Mike, Jason, and Luke gathered at the Country Boy Restaurant in Leipers Fork, Tennesee. The four sang while sipping coffee from diner mugs and clips of landmarks from the original video played throughout.

In a press release issued along with the new video’s release, Bryan and Aldean shared their thoughts on the collab.

“My earliest memories of ‘Sunday In The South’ is that this was a song that was speaking exactly my life,” Bryan said. “This song shaped the way I thought about music and how I wanted to make music one day.”

Aldean added, “It’s just always an honor for us to get to work with these guys we grew up listening to.”

Watch the new “Sunday In The South” music video featuring Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan in the clip below.

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