How can he be so upbeat when the world is falling apart, when his heart is crushed as he says?
With one of the easiest country tunes to memorize, and the most joyous rhythm you can imagine, Randy Travis is singing with straightforward lyrics about a love story turned bad.
Call me predictable, but when you miss someone that much, you don’t jump on fiddles and banjos… you rather would like to burry your head into something and cry your pain out. But it may be another way to cope.
I don’t really listen to country music, but it is the second country song Iman has sent me to review (the other one was from Brad Paisley) and Randy Travis is up there in the pantheon of country stars, with more than 12 studio albums, 30 singles, whose 16 have reached number one in the charts.
The song ‘Is it still over’ comes from his 1988 ‘Old 8×10’ album, and was co-written with Ken Bell and Larry Henley… er, no less than 3 people for the making of a hit song which went number one in 1989.
With lines like ‘Since my phone still ain’t ringing I’ll assume It still ain’t you’, sung on such a happy guitar, you would just think it is a humorous old-fashioned country song about uncomplicated things, but when you think about it, this line is not that evident. Iman told me it was genius, I would say it is a direct confession born from someone’s love obsession, born from the fact that suddenly everything turns around this obsession.
And with the line ‘And all but this broken heart in me I guess is doing fine’, there is almost that regret, the regret that the body is still ok when the heart is falling apart. So much for complacency with pain.