I’ve been reducing listeners to tears again. I’m afraid it goes with the job when you present a country music show. Brand New Country specialises in melancholy and misery. If it’s not Billy-Jo Mcallister throwing himself off the Talachachie Bridge, it’s what country singer, Brad Paisley referred to as “another one of them double-suicide-drinking songs!”
A guy called Nick e-mailed tonight to say how much he’d enjoyed hearing our session with Jim Reilley. He particularly enjoyed The Man Who Had Everything. “I cried my eyes out,” said Nick. “ There’s nothing makes you feel better than a great sad song.”
This track is an especially despondent ditty about a man who had everything but his whole world has now fallen apart. I love it, as did Nick.
“ I bought the album and played the track over and over, but the session version was more raw and immediate – I only greet sometimes when I listen to the CD.”
We once did a whole show of the saddest songs in country music. It was a great listen but I was a blubbering wreck by the end of it. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry was hard to take, but it was Nobody’s Child that finished me off.
Brand New Country is repeated on Sunday night, so tune in if you can. Just remember to keep the Prozac handy…