So far, I have written about country music songs about family, drinking, and cheating on your partner. These are common motifs in the genre. But there is another one that deserves recognition as well - the country songs that are sad. Tears-rolling-down-both-your-cheeks type of sad.
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The country music songs that move me most are so haunting that I hesitate to listen to them because they truly bring me to my knees. With their sorrowful images and gut-twisting performances by top stars like Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban, they are unforgettable. Have your hankies ready!
4 Sad Country Music Songs
'The House That Built Me' by Miranda Lambert
This song is so emotional that I can recall seeing a video of Miranda Lambert trying to sing it and dissolving in tears despite her efforts to regain her composure. It's the relatable images in it that get to me every time. The song is about the narrator's journey back to the house where she grew up in the hope of finding solace and resolution there. Kind of like doing a rewind of her life, minus the bad parts.
She solemnly relives the standout moments of her youth in the song:
"...Up those stairs in that little back bedroom
Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar
And I bet you didn't know under that live oak
My favourite dog is buried in the yard
I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
This brokenness inside me might start healing
Out here, it's like I'm someone else
I thought that maybe I could find myself...."
That line about the dog is a real killer.
'Tonight I Wanna Cry' by Keith Urban
Keith Urban sings this song with such dignity and simplicity that it goes straight to your heart like an arrow. The narrator is lamenting the end of a relationship, something that hurts him so much that he is dispensing with his customary stiff-upper-lip attitude. Each line conveys loneliness, isolation, hopeless yearning, and unbearable anguish. Anyone who has ever lost a love they treasured will feel, in the pit of their stomach, exactly what Urban means when he sings this.
"...Would it help if I turned a sad song on
'All By Myself' would sure hit me hard now that you're gone
Or maybe unfold some old yellow lost love letters
It's gonna hurt bad before it gets better
But I'll never get over you by hidin' this way
I've never been the kind to ever let my feelings show
And I thought that bein' strong meant never losin' your self-control
But I'm just drunk enough to let go of my pain
To hell with my pride, let it fall like rain
From my eyes
Tonight I want to cry...."
'In My Daughter's Eyes' by Martina McBride
Relationships between mothers and daughters can be fraught and complex. In this song, Martina McBride describes the way her daughter regards her - with the unquestioning idealism of a child, as though she is perfect. But it's actually the daughter that the mother wants to be like because she is without prejudice and filled with joy and serenity.
The end of the song is so lovely. The mother knows that her girl will inevitably be off on her own someday, yet her mom will always be part of her.
"...In my daughter's eyes
I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
And though she'll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I'm gone I hope you'll see
How happy she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes."
'See You Again' by Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood always sings with so much passion and conviction. In this song, she is mourning someone special to her, but with the knowledge in her heart that she and that person will be united again someday. They are not really gone from her life forever. There is grief, yet it is aligned with hope.
Underwood said about this song per songfacts.com, "In my mind, in my faith and what I believe, there is a heaven. There is a God and we're going to be there someday. It's of course very sad to lose somebody here on Earth, but having that faith and knowing that you're going to see them again is such an amazing thing, such a comforting thing, such a happy thing. That's what the song is all about."
I tend to be pessimistic, so I hear the bereavement and loss uppermost in "See You Again." Its beauty is that you can interpret the lyrics in many ways, as listeners have been doing since it was released in 2013.
"...I will see you again, oh
This is not where it ends
I will carry you with me, oh
'Til I see you again
Sometimes I feel my heart is breaking
But I stay strong, and I hold on, 'cause I know
I will see you again, oh
This is not where it ends
I will carry you with me, yeah, yeah..."
