Featured Songwriting Project:
“Touchdown Tennessee”

Media Release: Interview with Kevin D. Stroud

“Touchdown Tennessee” is an epic new country song penned by Kevin D. Stroud and recorded by Steve Dunn as a tribute song to the University Of Tennessee’s college football team. After watching last season’s defeat to the Florida Gators, UT Vols fan and songwriter Kevin D Stroud was inspired to “flip the script” and write a song remembering fond memories when Big Orange football was considered the best in the nation.

“When I started writing ‘Touchdown Tennessee’ I thought about a memorable weekend one season way back in 1994 when me and some friends from High School traveled to Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee to attend a UT Vols football game. That was Peyton Manning’s freshman year when he became the starting quarterback and began a great era of UT Vols football.

“Tee Martin as quarterback in 1998 when they defeated Florida State to win the National Championship — that was legendary,” Stroud recalls. “In 2016 everyone remembers quarterback Josh Dobbs 50-yard Hail Mary with only a few seconds left to defeat the Georgia Bulldogs at Georgia. Writing about those memories of football history is encapsulated in the upbeat energy of ‘Touchdown Tennessee’.”

The iconic bluegrass classic “Rocky Top” also lends much influence to this latest song from Stroud.

“I thought about how I could turn this around, create a paradigm shift  to a new fight song but write it as a modern country song in radio format,” Stroud explained. “I remember I finished the song within an hour and said out loud ‘Beat that!’ Always being the competitive type and always striving to maintain that competitive spirit, that’s a key factor that drives me to write songs.”

In the closing of this interview Stroud told me that “Touchdown Tennessee” was recorded in April 2024 by Steve Dunn on the recommendation of Gene Foley, CEO of Foley Entertainment. Steve Dunn is a recording artist and studio owner based out of Hartford, Connecticut. “Steve’s great and easy to work with,” Stroud says. “We have high hopes for ‘Touchdown Tennessee’.”