David Nail’s emotional ballads are always worth a listen, and “Hotel Keys” is no different.

His collaboration with songwriter Dave Barnes is the sort of song every traveling musician understands.

• David Nail is best known for chart-topping songs “Whatever She’s Got” and “Let It Rain.”
• Since 2018 he’s released six EPs on the One Five Sound record label.
• Nail and his wife Catherine have three children.

“Hotel Keys” finds Nail crossing the country to chase a dream. He puts a voice to every high and low, plus all the exhaustion of moving cities each night.

The chorus makes it clear that he’d do it all over again.

“The wheels just keep on rolling / Another town, another scene / Eleven years of running and so few memories / What I’d give to go back to when it was a dream / When it was more than a pocket of hotel keys,” he sings.

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On Instagram, Nail shared that he wrote the song 12 years ago and only recently rediscovered it. The lyrics reminded him what it was like to meet new people in every town amid a rush of adrenaline from each show.

“Even though memories can blend into one another after years of going from town to town, I still appreciate every moment on the road,” he says. “That pocket of hotel keys from the road means much more to me than you think.”

Nail wrote “Hotel Keys” with Barnes, and to celebrate Friday’s (July 11) release he’s doing the most appropriate thing: Touring.

The Hotel Keys Tour actually started on Thursday night in South Carolina. He’ll be gone every weekend through October, with the last date slated for Nov. 8 in Livingston, Tenn.