Max Jackson, Florida Georgia Line and the Songs That Take You Back

There's something about the music you listened to when you were 17.

You might move on, discover new artists and collect a few more years along the way, but all it takes is one familiar song to put you straight back behind the wheel of your first car, windows down, stereo turned up and the whole world still ahead of you. For Max Jackson, that music was Florida Georgia Line, and an unexpected reunion has given her the inspiration for a new song, FGL (Me & You).

When Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley reunited as Florida Georgia Line at CMA Fest in Nashville earlier this year, plenty of country fans were taken by surprise. Watching from her living room in Australia, Max Jackson was transported straight back to her teenage years in Coonamble, NSW, when Florida Georgia Line provided the soundtrack to first cars, young love and the sort of freedom that seems to come naturally when you're 17.

It also got her thinking. If two people who had gone their separate ways could find their way back together, perhaps there was hope for other relationships that seemed well and truly finished. It's a pretty good starting point for a country song, and Jackson has turned that thought into FGL (Me & You), a feel-good country-pop track about nostalgia, second chances and the possibility that some things might not be over after all.

“I grew up blasting Florida Georgia Line in my first car. Windows down, 17 years old, that feeling of freedom you attach to songs forever,” Jackson recalls. “So when I watched Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley unexpectedly come back together at CMA Fest this year, from my living room in Australia, it instantly transported me back there.”

It's easy to understand the connection. When Florida Georgia Line arrived with songs like Cruise, they brought a new energy to mainstream country music, mixing country storytelling with big pop hooks and a soundtrack built for summer nights, back roads and car stereos. Love them or not, they helped define a particular period in modern country, and for a generation of younger fans, those songs became part of growing up.

That's the feeling Jackson wanted to capture, rather than simply revisit the sound. “What I've always loved about FGL's music is that it's the ultimate escape. It's fun, summer, young, crazy and in love,” she says. “That's the kind of country music I'm craving right now, and that feeling became this song.”

Written with Nick Wolfe and Kylie Sackley and produced by Jared Adlam, FGL (Me & You) carries a few subtle nods to Florida Georgia Line while finding its own place in Jackson's increasingly confident country-pop sound. There's a big singalong chorus, plenty of energy and a story that will probably resonate with anyone who has ever wondered whether an old flame might deserve another chance.

The single arrives at an interesting point in Jackson's career. Her album Dangerous In Denim has earned her first ARIA Award nomination for Best Country Album, adding to a growing collection of achievements that already includes four Golden Guitar Awards, two of them for Female Artist of the Year.

Not bad for someone who started out in Coonamble, a small country town in western New South Wales with a population of around 2,750. From winning Toyota Star Maker to performing at CMA Fest in Nashville and C2C festivals in London and Berlin, Jackson has steadily built a career that now reaches well beyond Australia's country music circuit. She's part of a generation of Australian artists comfortable moving between traditional country influences and the bigger, contemporary sounds coming out of Nashville, without losing the connection to where they started.

With new management at TOBE Artists, an ARIA nomination and a run of festival appearances ahead, FGL (Me & You) feels like the beginning of another chapter. It's also a reminder that sometimes the best inspiration doesn't come from chasing something new, but from remembering what made you fall in love with music in the first place.

Jackson says it's one of her favourite songs she's written, and she's looking forward to getting it out on the road and hearing audiences sing it back. And that's probably where a song like this belongs — coming through the speakers on a long drive, with the windows down and the volume a little louder than it needs to be.

Because some songs don't just remind you of a time in your life. They take you right back there.