#247) "If Heaven" by Andy Griggs - Penned by one of the best songwriters in country music - Gretchen Peters - "If Heaven" is a ballad that keeps digging until it reaches that aquifer of sorrow used for fueling something that is more than merely a "hurtin' song". There's a cinematic flair in much of Peters' music, but here the arrangement, coupled with Griggs' vocals (a perfect blend of pitch and drawl) energizes (anxious energy, that is...) the bittersweet melody and evocative lyrics, until the "cinematic flair" transforms into something unbearably heart-breaking and unbearably lovely, ultimately transcending, like all great ballads, the mere moment at hand.
"If heaven were an hour, it'd be twilight ..."
#248) "For the Good Times" by Ray Price - Penned by ANOTHER of the best songwriters in country music - Kris Kristofferson - country crooner Ray Price's version of "For the Good Times" lays bare one of nature's uniquely human skills - the manufacture, distribution and preservation of "good times".
That we experience our lives within the framework of fraternity not only with each other, but with the passage of time, dividing it up into themes and eras as it grinds forward and down ceaselessly, is perhaps more than anything (other than laughter) what distinguishes us from the animals.
That we experience our lives within the framework of fraternity not only with each other, but with the passage of time, dividing it up into themes and eras as it grinds forward and down ceaselessly, is perhaps more than anything (other than laughter) what distinguishes us from the animals.
Whether they're romantic in nature, as in this song, or involve just friends or family, the good times are all too fleeting, and start to lessen, lose potency, as life passes, which I think is reflected in "For the Good Times". There is an urgency here, as two people find themselves at the end of their relationship (it is, after all, a hurtin' song first and foremost...), but there's also a certain resignation to those things that are completely beyond our control.
(As it grinds forward and down ceaselessly...)
(As it grinds forward and down ceaselessly...)
"Don't look so sad, I know it's over..."
