Kentucky songwriting duo makes contributions to Lainey Wilson’s upcoming album

Bayou bred country star Lainey Wilson has captivated the nation with her brand of bell-bottom country the past couple of years, selling out shows from coast to coast, garnering an impressive collection of Grammy, ACM and CMA awards, and even starring on the hit Paramount Network western drama “Yellowstone”.

But on her newest song “4X4XU” released on July 4 she receives an assist from two Kentucky born songwriters — Danville’s Aaron Raitiere and Monticello’s Jon Decious — who’ve been making waves of their own behind the scenes in Nashville’s music circles.

The duo has songwriting credits with the likes of Miranda Lambert, The Oak Ridge Boys, Kylie Morgan, Anderson East, Paul Cauthen and Lola Kirke, in addition to penning over 300 songs together, around 40 of which have been picked up and recorded by others. The opportunity to work with Wilson may be the biggest break for them yet though, and Raitiere and Decious made the most of it, contributing to three songs on her upcoming album.

In addition to “4X4XU,” Raitiere and Decious also co-wrote “Ring Finger” while Decious also earned credits on “Counting Chickens,” both of which are currently unreleased. According to Raitiere, he’d previously written with Wilson but hadn’t heard from her in a while until a mutual friend reached out and scheduled them for a writing session that ended up yielding both of his songs that made it onto the album.

“Once you get in the room with an artist and it goes well it’s not uncommon for them to call you back to work again. You just never know when that’s going to be,” says Raitiere. “Jon got to a place recently where he wrote ‘Counting Chickens’ with her and a few other folks, and that song is incredible. Because of that and knowing how well Jon and I click, she hit him up again and we were able to crank out ‘4X4XU’ and ‘Ring Finger’ together.”

A bonafide hit in the making, “4X4XU” is a heartfelt love ballad that sees Wilson singing about road tripping with her ride or die: “From the Bayou to Kentucky, the city to the country, from here to Timbuktu.” Central to that hook is the play on words “4X4XU,” a phrase that Decious came up with that Ratiere says “the song wrote itself around in a matter of minutes.”

“It’s a simple and catchy idea, but also an example of how everything Lainey does turns to gold,” added Decious. “If you’re writing with her and are able to come in with something that has potential, she’s always able to get the most out of it. The idea for ‘4X4XU’ came quickly and she took off and ran with it.”

The chance to work with Wilson is the latest in a long line of adventures for the Kentucky songwriting duo who met in 2010, not in Kentucky or Nashville, but in Wyoming of all places.

“I had gotten accepted into this songwriting thing out in Dubois and met an older lady there who insisted I meet her boyfriend because he was also from Kentucky and drinks beer in the morning like I did at the time,” jokes Decious. “At the end of the week, me, her and some other friends traveled up to Jackson Hole where she’d flown [Aaron] in to meet us. We quickly became best friends and have been hanging out ever since.”

They’ve since gone on to not only become formidable songwriting partners, but also inseparable friends who even lived together in a singlewide trailer for a time after Raitiere’s house burned down in 2015. The resulting experience led to them writing many songs together that became the premise of Raitiere’s 2022 debut album Single Wide Dreamer that features appearances from Lambert, Bob Weir, Robert Randolph and Ashley Monroe, among others.

That camaraderie through thick and thin has not only helped them navigate life’s ups and downs together, but it also just happens to be the perfect recipe for writing a good song.

“We’re able to talk without talking and give constructive criticism, which saves us a lot of time when we’re writing,” explains Raitiere. “What takes most great songwriters four hours we’re able to pull off in one because we can just look at each other and agree or disagree nonverbally instead of sitting there debating it.”

Whirlwind, which includes the songs “4X4XU,” “Ring Finger” and “Counting Chickens,” partially penned by Raitiere and Decious, will be available Aug. 23.