"It's Just That Way" is the title of a song written by Vicky McGehee, Kylie Sackley, and Keith Stegall

Keith Stegall

Robert Keith Stegall is an American country music recording artist and record producer. Active since 1980, Stegall has recorded two-major label studio albums: 1985's Keith Stegall and 1996's Passages...

, and recorded by American country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Alan Jackson

Alan Jackson

Alan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista...

. It was released on January 4, 2010, and served as the lead-off single to his sixteenth studio album, Freight Train

Freight Train (album)

Upon its release, Freight Train received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable...

, which was released on March 30, 2010.

Content

"It's Just That Way" is a country ballad, backed primarily with steel guitar and piano fills. The song's male narrator compares common occurrences in everyday life ("That ol' sun comes up every mornin'" / "And goes back down at the end of every day") to his assurance to always love his woman. He concludes by stating that he doesn't have any explanation for this, and that "it's just that way."

Reception

The 9513 reviewer Karlie Justus gave the song a thumbs up, describing favorably that "his emphasis on the two-line chorus contrasts with the song’s easy-going feel, showing there’s something below his matter-of-fact surface." Justus stated that while there is "nothing particularly ground breaking or surprising in its execution," she concluded that it "marks a welcome return to the artist that created Precious Memories and Like Red on a Rose." Matt Bjorke of Roughstock reviewed the song positively, referring to it as "Alan Jackson at his best, charmingly laid-back as he sings a straight-up steel guitar laced ballad." He compared the song favorably to "Remember When

Remember When (Alan Jackson song)

"Remember When" is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music artist Alan Jackson. It was released in October 2003 as the second and final single from his compilation album, Greatest Hits Volume II. This song is based on early flashbacks that Alan remembers. This song held...

" and noted that the production was "supurb [sic

Sic

Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...

] as usual."

Chart performance

"It's Just That Way" debuted at number 50 on the U.S. Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

chart for the week of December 26, 2009, and reached a peak of number 16 for the chart week of April 17, 2010.

Chart (2009–2010)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs	16
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100	3