Ella Langley & Riley Green’s Retro Duet: “You Look Like You Love Me”
A New Classic in the Making
In June 2024, while on the road for Riley Green’s Ain’t My Last Rodeo Tour, rising country powerhouse Ella Langley teased a brand-new duet, “You Look Like You Love Me.” Any new music from Langley gets fans buzzing, but this one carried extra weight: a traditional-leaning collaboration with Green that immediately drew comparisons to Johnny & June and George & Tammy.
Released on June 21, 2024, the track quickly became a fan favorite and was confirmed as part of Langley’s sophomore album, hungover.
Designed as an homage to vintage honky-tonk duets, the production leans into steel guitar, sauntering drums, and a retro groove. Ella commands much of the track with her swagger-filled, magnetic delivery, while Riley counters with his rugged, grounded vocals. The chemistry is undeniable — playful, charged, and dripping with the kind of tension that makes great country duets last.
The Meaning
Langley opens the song with a spoken verse, recalling the story of how she spotted a cowboy across the bar and made the first move. She sets the tone with playful confidence, bold enough to toss out the cheeky line:
“Excuse me, you look like you love me.”
Green takes the second verse, flipping the perspective and affirming how taken he was with her forwardness. By the end, the pair turn the song into a shared piece of advice — a kind of passed-down wisdom for anyone brave enough to follow through on love at first sight.
The structure, with spoken storytelling woven into the sung choruses, feels like an intentional throwback to classic country duets — but the lyric’s wink-and-nod humor gives it a modern edge.
What They’ve Said
Ella Langley has teased snippets and live versions across social media but hasn’t revealed much about the inspiration.
Riley Green told Holler:
“The song with Ella was one of those things that can only happen out on the road… I heard the song, and I think she thought maybe it would be a good collaboration with somebody, so I wrote a second verse for it. She does a great job with it, and it’s definitely something that I’m sure we’ll be doing together.”
Full Lyrics to “You Look Like You Love Me”
(Ella Langley, Riley Green, Both)
I was all but 22, I think, at the time,
I’d been out on the road, lonely at night,
And it’d been a while, so it was on my mind,
Well, I saw him walk in with his cowboy hat,
And I thought to myself, ‘I could use some of that’,
His boots like glass on a sawdust floor,
Had moves like nothing I’d ever seen before,
So I walked right up, and I pulled him to the side,
I handed that man a beer, and looked him in the eyes,
And I said, ‘Baby, I think you’re gonna wanna hear this’,
Then I told him,
‘Excuse me, you look like you love me,
You look like you want me, to want you to come on home,
Baby, I don’t blame you, for looking me up and down across this room,
I’m drunk and I’m ready to leave, and you look like you love me’
I was down at the local beer joint with a few of the guys
And this cute little country girl caught my eye
And I’m here to tell you, man, she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen in boots
She walked right up to me and handed me a beer
And gave me a look like, ‘Lets get outta here’
That’s when I knew she was every cowboy’s dream come true
She told me this right here
‘Excuse me, you look like you love me,
You look like you want me, to want you to come on home,
Baby, I don’t blame you, for looking me up and down across this room,
I’m drunk and I’m ready to leave, and you look like you love me’
So if you ever see a man in a cowboy hat
And you think to yourself
I could use some of that
Don’t waste your time
Just give ‘em this here line
Goes a little like this
‘Excuse me, you look like you love me,
You look like you want me, to want you to come on home,
Baby, I don’t blame you, for looking me up and down across this room,
I’m drunk and I’m ready to leave, and you look like you love me’