I like a lot of different types of music, but one of the reasons I love country is that it's one of the few genres that can hit you so hard in the heart you have to pull over to the side of the road and cry. You won't get that with EDM or most of the trite pop songs we hear today. Here are my top 5 songs that I can't hear without bawling uncontrollably (metaphorically speaking, of course...maybe...anyways....)
5. "Almost Home" by Craig Morgan
-The song doesn't initially present as one that would hit you that hard, but a few listens and it does. It's about a guy that gives a homeless guy that is laying on the ground a little shake to see if he's still alive. Turns out, he's just napping, and his response to Craig is tragically heartbreaking.
He's not pleased about being woken up. The lyrics detail the dream he was having about the last time he was happy ("July of '55") and relates a simple childhood country day (jumping in a creek, smelling a freshly-mowed field, Daddy loading up the cane poles in the truck, etc.)
"Man I wish you'd just left me alone, 'cuz I was almost home." The double meaning is brilliant in that he's referring to the dream itself as the child is almost home from his day out, but also means, literally, heaven or what lies in death.
The suggestion that he take the guy to the Mission for some food is shaken off and he's told "boy if you left me alone, right now I'd be fishing." The old homeless guys only finds solace and brief joy in his dreams. There is nothing for him in the real world. If that doesn't break your heart, what will?
4. "There Goes My Life" by Kenny Chesney
-Sweeping song that covers an entire generation in a few minutes and does so perfectly. The chorus fits each stage of life, but has a different meaning as things progress.
"There goes my life" is initially the guys reaction to learning he's impregnated his girl by accident and is going to have to be a young father and scrap all his life goals and plans. He's not happy. He's scared and already resentful of a child that hasn't even been born yet.
The resentment vanishes in seconds once his little girl is born. The second part of the song details raising her and states poignantly "That mistake he thought he made covers up the refrigerator." He's never been more in love and states with pride and joy "There goes my life" when she toddles off to bed.
Lastly, she's grown up and is heading off to the West Coast like he had planned so long ago. He cries "There Goes My Life" and it's devastating. His everything is leaving and his life is walking away before his eyes. We all know she'll still be his little girl, but it won't ever be the same.
3. "I Drive Your Truck" by Lee Brice
-A guy describes the fragments of his best friend's life still in his truck (89 cents, an old army shirt, a half-drank bottle of gatorade). "People got their ways of coping, and I got mine. I drive your truuuuuuuuck." "Mama asked me this morning if I'd been by your grave. But that flagstone ain't where I feel you anyways. I drive your truuuuuck."
This is one where the video is required. Most of it is fairly predictable, but the end will send you over the edge. The song is sad enough to begin with, but when he returns the keys to his best friend's young wife, a doe-eyed little girl comes out and looks up with pain in her eyes. Just kill me now.
2. "Wish You Were Here" - Mark Wills
-Two people so in love. They are saying goodbye at the airport. He promises her to call her when he gets there.
"He bought a postcard, on the front it just said 'Heaven", with a picture of the ocean and the beach. And the simple words he wrote her said he loved and he told her how he'd hold her if his arms could reach. Wish you were here, wish you could see this place. Wish you were near, wish I could touch your face..."
She gets a call that night "but it wasn't from him." The plane went down, no survivors. "But somehow she got a postcard in the mail that just said Heaven." Repeat chorus. Good Jesus. Devastating.
1. "The Baby" by Blake Shelton
Starts out simple enough with his brother complaining Blakey was the youngest and got away with everything. He put his Mom throw hell, but she laughed right through it. "I could do no wrong. She would always save me, because I was her baby."
He then details the factory work, truckin' and coming of age. He calls Mom to tell her he's now a man and she says "I don't care of you're 80, you'll always be my baby."
And then..."I got a call in Alabama, said come back home to Louisiana." Mom might not make it through the night. "The whole way I drove 80, so she could see her baby." He gets there. The family is in tears. She's already passed and he never got to say goodbye. "I softly kissed that lady and cried just like a baby."
Why is this one #1? I think it's because of what it says and what it doesn't. The lyrics are simple enough, but the stuff in between the lines is a given and one that anyone that ever took their Mom for granted can relate to (and isn't that every one of us?)
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