In an interview in 2020 Nelson provided some information about the origin of this and other Hunter / Nelson songs:

"That was part of one of the batch of lyrics he sent me. He'd send me a folder by email and I'd go through it. Over the years, he sent me a few folders, each containing dozens of song lyrics. There are tons of them. That's where "Movin' Right Along" came from. At one point, I was putting melodies and music to most of them. I'd take two or three and just go for it. Then a week later, I'd do three more.