Trace Adkins Brought "Hillbilly Bone" Home on the Deluxe Edition of Cowboy's Back in Town (August 17, 2010)
On August 17, 2010, Trace Adkins released Cowboy's Back in Town, his ninth studio album and his first for Toby Keith's Show Dog-Universal Music label. The deluxe edition of the project bundled in a track that had already become one of the biggest duets of the year, "Hillbilly Bone," the chart-topping team-up between Blake Shelton and Trace, giving fans four extra songs and a career-defining hit alongside the standard 12-track album.
A New Label, A New Sound
Cowboy's Back in Town marked a turning point for Trace. After fulfilling his contract with Capitol Records Nashville with 2008's X, he signed with Show Dog-Universal Music, the label run by his longtime friend Toby Keith. The album's first single, "This Ain't No Love Song," went to radio in May 2010, and the full project arrived that August with a rowdier, more playful sound than fans had heard from him in years. Trace himself described the sessions as more uptempo and, in his words, happier.
The standard edition ran through fan favorites like the title track "Cowboy's Back in Town," which Trace had a hand in writing, along with "Hold My Beer," "Ala-Freakin-Bama," and the tender ballad "Still Love You." Louisiana ties run through the tracklist too. "A Little Bit of Missin' You" was co-written by Louisiana songwriter Jim McCormick, alongside Tim Johnson and Mickey Jack Cones. But it was the deluxe edition, stacked with four bonus cuts, that carried the song everybody was already singing along to on the radio.
The record proved Trace's new label bet paid off fast. Cowboy's Back in Town debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, his first studio album to crack the top 10 since 2006's Dangerous Man, and it landed at number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, his fourth career chart-topper there.
"Hillbilly Bone" Comes Home to the Album
"Hillbilly Bone" had been released as Blake Shelton's single months earlier, and by the time Cowboy's Back in Town hit shelves, the song had already climbed to number one and earned the Academy of Country Music's Vocal Event of the Year award, Blake's first ACM win. Its chart run overlapped with two of Trace's own singles that year, "All I Ask For Anymore" and "Ala-Freakin-Bama."
Rather than leave the hit off his own album, Trace folded "Hillbilly Bone" into the deluxe edition of Cowboy's Back in Town, giving the song a proper home on the project that carried his name. It sat alongside other bonus tracks like "Between the Rainbows and the Rain" and the piano ballad "Pictures on Mantles," rounding the deluxe version out to sixteen songs total.
The pairing made sense beyond the charts. Blake and Trace had built a close friendship in Nashville, and "Hillbilly Bone" gave both artists a chance to lean into the same unapologetic, small-town swagger that has always defined Trace's own catalog, from "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" to "Ladies Love Country Boys." It fits a Sarepta, Louisiana native who has never let Nashville stardom talk him out of his roots.
Trace Adkins's Fresh Start, Fully Realized
Fifteen years later, Cowboy's Back in Town still stands as the moment Trace Adkins proved a new label and a rowdier sound could carry him right back to the top. The deluxe edition, with "Hillbilly Bone" riding alongside the album's own singles, gave fans two things at once: a Trace record that sounded looser and happier than anything he had released in years, and a bona fide, ACM-winning hit that had already conquered radio on its own. It remains a staple in Trace and Blake's live shows whenever their paths cross, a reminder that some of country music's best moments happen when two friends have some fun, and a Louisiana boy brings it home with him.
Faq's
When was the deluxe edition of Cowboy's Back in Town released?
The deluxe edition of Trace Adkins's Cowboy's Back in Town was released on August 17, 2010, alongside the standard edition of the album.
What song did the deluxe edition add?
The deluxe edition added four bonus tracks, most notably "Hillbilly Bone," Trace's chart-topping duet with Blake Shelton, along with "Between the Rainbows and the Rain" and "Pictures on Mantles."
Did "Hillbilly Bone" win any awards?
Yes. "Hillbilly Bone" won the 2010 Academy of Country Music Award for Vocal Event of the Year, marking Blake Shelton's first ACM win.
How did Cowboy's Back in Town perform on the charts?
The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 and reached number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, Trace Adkins's fourth number one album on that chart.
Where is Trace Adkins from?
Trace Adkins was born and raised in Sarepta, Louisiana, a small town in Webster Parish.
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