Chicken Soup for the Soul: Country Music: The Inspirational Stories behind 101 of Your Favorite Country Songs

by Jack Canfield

  Oh, if life were like the movies, I’d never be blue.

  CHORUS:

  But here in the real world,

  It’s not that easy at all,

  ’Cause when hearts get broken,

  It’s real tears that fall.

  And darling, it’s sad but true,

  But the one thing I’ve learned from you,

  Is how the boy don’t always get the girl,

  Here in the real world.

  I gave you my love, but that wasn’t enough,

  To hold your heart when times got tough.

  And tonight on that silver screen, it’ll end like it should,

  Two lovers will make it through, like I hoped we would.

  CHORUS

  Hey Cinderella

  Story by Suzy Bogguss

  Song written by Suzy Bogguss, Matraca Berg, and Gary Harrison

  Recorded by Suzy Bogguss

  Matraca Berg and I had never written a song together before we wrote this song. So we sat down to have a chat about where we came from and our backgrounds and that kind of thing, just to get to know each other better. We were talking about how Matraca’s mom and my mom had grown up in the same time period. They had both gotten married in the late 1950s and we were talking about what a different time that was for women.

  We started getting a little catty talking about how, if you had the right coffee pot and got all the right things on the gift register when you got married, then everything was going to work out fine for you. And a lot of times, of course, it didn’t. We were thinking about that bright-eyed, 1950s mentality, and how a lot of women bought it and then got clobbered, because they weren’t expecting what life eventually had in store for them. We all take different turns in life and you never know if you are going to take the same turns as your partner or not.

  My big sister was a hero to me when I was little. I wanted to do everything she did. She played the drums; I wanted to play the drums. She left her guitar at home and I picked it up and began playing it. I also really admired my mom. She and her friends were a lot different from the typical Donna Reed type. They were kind of salty. In a lot of ways, my mom didn’t really buy into the things that a lot of women her age believed, that all your happiness is going to come from a man or staying home or whatever. She was a working mother and she had her own friends outside of her relationship with my dad. I used to go bowling with her on Wednesday nights. She really encouraged me, just as a human being. She would have been as big a supporter of me if I had chosen to be a nurse or an engineer or whatever. She really gave us that “you can do anything if you work hard enough” attitude. That’s the problem with today’s young people. You can’t just build up their self-esteem without finding a way to get them motivated and driven to show what they can do. If you heap praise on them and they haven’t really done anything, then you’re really taking something away from them.

  So Matraca and I were discussing these things, and we started needling the whole “Cinderella” thing more and more as we wrote the song. We were like, “Okay, come on, chick, now give us the real story here. What really happened?”

  We were at Pat Higdon’s office and we went out to get a cup of coffee and Gary Harrison was there in the hallway, so we asked him to come in and give his perspective. We were told we might be getting a little too catty, so we said, “What are you doing? Come on in and help us write this song.” He’s a great lyricist. Matraca and I thought maybe this would help us write something that would be better than just a novelty song, and maybe help us edit out some of the nasty digs we were getting in, too.

  We finished it that day and I took it home and played it for my husband. I’ve never been the type of person who wants to cut only what I write. This town is full of incredible writers and you have to find the best songs. But as soon as Doug heard it, he said, “Well, that’s a no-brainer. You have to cut that song.” So I did.

  It’s funny how many of the lines are starting to come true in my life now, especially the line that says, “Sometimes we still curse gravity when no one is around.” I’ve been happily married for 24 years now, but I’ve seen a few of my friend’s marriages explode. It’s not an easy thing to watch, especially if you’ve been friends with both of them and now you have to pick one. It’s really difficult to stay friends with both.

  I love a good story. I tend to be a hopeless romantic and a cockeyed realist at the same time. So when I look for a song, I look for something that has a good story and redeemable characters in it and has a message, but I try not to be too bitter when I’m writing it. I think this song accomplished both.

  Hey Cinderella

  We believed in fairy tales that day

  I watched your father give you away

  Your aim was true when the pink bouquet

  Fell right into my hands

  We danced for hours and we drank champagne

  You screamed and laughed when I got up and sang

  And then you rode away in a white Mustang

  To your castle in the sand

  Through the years and the kids and the jobs

  And the dreams that lost their way

  Do you ever stop and wonder

  Do you ever just wanna say

  Hey hey, Cinderella, what’s the story all about?

  I got a funny feeling we missed a page or two somehow

  Oh-oh, Cinderella, maybe you could help us out

  Does that shoe fit you now?

  We’re older but no more the wise

  We’ve learned the art of compromise

  Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry

  And sometimes we just break down

  We’re good now ’cause we have to be

  Come to terms with our vanity

  Sometimes we still curse gravity

  When no one is around

  Yeah, our dolls gather dust in the corner of the attic

  And bicycles rust in the rain

  Still we walk in that fabled shadow

  Sometimes we call her name

  Hey hey, Cinderella, what’s the story all about?

  I got a funny feeling we missed a page or two somehow

  Oh-oh, Cinderella, maybe you could help us out

  Does that shoe fit you now?

  Hey! Cinderella, maybe you could help us out

  Does the shoe fit you now?

  Highway 40 Blues

  Story by Larry Cordle

  Song written by Larry Cordle

  Recorded by Ricky Skaggs

  In the 1980s, I was living and working in Kentucky. I was a CPA by day in Paintsville. Three nights a week I worked in a little club band in Hazard, Kentucky, about 60 or 70 miles away. I came home late one night after a gig. When I passed the road sign where I turned off Route 40 to go to my house, the title “Highway 40 Blues,” popped into my head. I pulled over and wrote the first verse right there.

  Of course, a lot of people who hear it think it’s about Interstate 40, which runs right through Nashville, but I actually wrote it about that little state highway in Kentucky. The next day, I sat down and wrote the other two verses. I had the melody in my head for about a week before that and I actually finished writing the whole song without even picking up a guitar.

  I knew Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley. The whole reason I started thinking I could do this music thing was because I saw how successful Ricky was getting and I decided maybe I could give it a shot, too.

  We started playing around, first at people’s houses, and then playing some clubs. To be honest, I probably wasn’t good enough at the time. I was a decent guitar player, sang some and did a little writing, but when you are raised around people like Ricky, it can be pretty intimidating. Ricky was playing with Emmylou Harris at the time and hadn’t really come into his own as an artist quite yet. The original recorded version of “Highway 40 Blues” was a thing that Ricky produced in 1980. That version actually had a young kid named Béla Fleck playing on it and some other real killer players. We had the same
instrumental breaks and everything. I don’t think mine had steel slide on it like Ricky’s eventually did, but it had some great licks. I think we had Dobro, and banjo and lead guitar. Ricky told me, “If I ever get a record deal, I’m going to record some of your songs.” I just laughed about it. I knew it was probably a long shot for either of us.

  Then one day, after he had moved on to Nashville, he called me and said he was coming through Kentucky and said, “I’ve got something I want you to hear.” When he got here, he played me the rough mix of “Highway 40 Blues” that he was going to include on his album.

  He asked if I wanted to move to Nashville and I said, “You mean try to write music for a living?” I didn’t know if it could even be done. I had no idea how the business worked or anything else. He said, “Well, yes.” So eventually I moved to Nashville, and Ricky got his deal with Columbia. The song was released as a single from his Country Gentleman album and became a big hit.

  It’s been recorded by several other people since then and all the artists and musicians still think it’s about I-40 because that’s the road they all take when they go out on the road from Nashville. It runs east to west all the way to both coasts so it’s a major road for touring busses.

  “Highway 40 Blues” was actually the first cut I ever had as a writer and it went to #1, which is almost unheard of. It also helped boost Ricky’s career as an artist and it’s still a favorite song for his band to play live today. It’s a great jamming song.

  Highway 40 Blues

  Well, these Highway 40 blues,

  I’ve walked holes in both my shoes.

  Counted the days since I’ve been gone,

  And I’d love to see the lights of home.

  Wasted time and money too;

  Squandered youth in search of truth.

  But in the end I had to lose,

  Lord above, I’ve paid my dues.

  Got the Highway 40 blues.

  The highway called when I was young,

  Told me lies of things to come.

  Fame and fortune lies ahead

  That’s what the billboard lights had said.

  Shattered dreams, my mind is numb,

  My money’s gone, stick out my thumb.

  My eyes are filled with bitter tears,

  Lord, I ain’t been home in years.

  Got the Highway 40 blues.

  INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

  You know, I’ve rambled all around,

  Like a rolling stone, from town to town.

  Met pretty girls I have to say,

  But none of them could make me stay.

  Well, I’ve played the music halls and bars,

  Had fancy clothes and big fine cars:

  Things a country boy can’t use,

  Dixieland I sure miss you.

  Got the Highway 40 blues.

  Holes in the Floor of Heaven

  Story by Billy Kirsch

  Song written by Steve Wariner and Billy Kirsch

  Recorded by Steve Wariner

  I got the title for “Holes in the Floor of Heaven” from my wife Julie. She came across that line in a novel she was reading and it really resonated with her. I remember we were in the kitchen doing dishes after dinner and I said, “That sounds like a great title for a song.” I wrote it down on a pad while I was sitting at my piano and tried writing to it several times. I would get excited, but then I would wake up the next morning and come in and look at it and think, “Nah, it’s not real enough.”

  Several months after that, my grandmother passed away. This was back around 1997. I was living in Nashville and my daughter was maybe six or seven, and my son was about a year old. I took my daughter to the funeral with me in New York. It was a Friday night and American Airlines had a direct flight from Nashville to New York about 6:00 p.m. As we began the flight from Nashville, we were seated on the left side of the plane so we were looking west. It was a beautiful night. There were what my kids call “mashed potato clouds” and a bright orange sunset. And out of the mouths of babes, my daughter said, “I think I see God on his throne and I think I see Nanna Molly sitting next to Him.” Of course, I just lost it. I still get a catch in my throat when I tell that story years later. It was very real and very impactful, just the kind of thing that a six-year-old imagination would see.

  As soon as she said that, I was starting to process it. I began to scribble that first verse. I wrote, “one day shy of six years old... grandma passed away... I was a broken hearted little girl.” By the time Steve recorded it, it became “eight years old” and a “little boy.”

  When I got home from New York, I had finished the first verse. When you get an idea like that, you don’t share it with just anybody. We, as songwriters, start to get protective of those ideas when we’re still in the process of creating. I had been working on it for several months already and those kinds of ideas don’t come along every day.

  Steve Wariner and I had already written several songs together and I went over to Steve’s one night to write. His wife and manager, Caryn, was standing in the kitchen making coffee when, out of the blue, she said, “You guys ought to write a story song today.” I smiled and reached for my bag and said, ‘Well, as a matter of fact. . .”

  So Steve and I went up to the studio and I played him that first verse. I didn’t have a melody yet, but Steve picked up his guitar, like a great co-writer does, and launched into the chorus, singing “and there’s holes in the floor of heaven. . . .” We were off and running.

  Then, like a lot of writers, we started to go from inspiration to craft and we were at the “Okay, what do we do next?” stage. We were trying to follow that “problem, evolution, and resolution” format, and realized we needed more. We knew that in the second verse, in order to move the story forward, somebody else might have to die or something. At the time, my wife was recovering from being treated for thyroid cancer, so it was a pretty emotional time in my life. I don’t know whether subconsciously that was on my mind, but we came up with the idea for the mother to pass away. Then it was Steve’s idea for the daughter to get married later and have her mom’s tears falling on her during the wedding. It was a great collaboration.

  We played it for Caryn and she said, “That song is for Steve,” because we had written for other artists together before. He was at the end of his deal with his record label and was starting to shop himself again. Caryn would say, “Yeah, Steve met with so-and-so, but they don’t hear ‘Holes’ as the first single.” She was very passionate about that song. She just knew it was going to be his comeback song and she wanted it out as soon as possible. And, of course, we said “Oh, just sign the deal already! It will come out sooner or later.” But she has a great business sense, and she was right.

  A few months later, Steve was on a plane coming back from L.A. Garth Brooks and Pat Quigley, who was the head of Capitol Records then, were also on the plane. Steve played the demo for Garth. As soon as he heard it, he put the headphones on Pat Quigley. Pat just flipped and said, “Let’s go. Let’s put this out. We want to do a record deal with you.” So Garth helped Steve get his deal with Capitol. Garth is very selfless that way. He is always willing to help out other artists.

  Two or three weeks later, we were in the studio recording the song, and Steve was doing the vocal and we were adding the strings and parts. It was on the radio within weeks. In 1998, it was named Song of the Year at the Country Music Association and at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

  Holes in the Floor of Heaven

  One day shy of eight years old

  Grandma passed away

  I was a broken hearted little boy,

  blowing out that birthday cake

  Oh, how I cried when the sky let go

  with a cold and lonesome rain.

  Momma smiled, said “Don’t be sad, child

  Grandma’s watchin’ you today”

  CHORUS:

  ’Cause there’s holes in the floor of heaven

  and her tears are pourin’ down


  That’s how you know she’s watchin’

  wishin’ she could be here now

  And sometimes if you’re lonely

  just remember she can see

  There’s holes in the floor of heaven

  and she’s watchin’ over you and me

  Seasons come and seasons go

  Nothin’ stays the same

  I grew up fell in love

  met a girl who took my name

  Year by year we made a life

  in this sleepy little town

  I thought we’d grow old together

  Lord, I sure do miss her now.

  CHORUS

  Well my little girl is 23

  I walk her down the aisle

  it’s a shame her mom can’t be here now

  to see her lovely smile

  They throw the rice

  I catch her eye

  as the rain starts comin’ down

  She takes my hand says, “Daddy don’t be sad ’cause

  I know momma’s watchin’ now”

  CHORUS

  How Do You Get That Lonely?

  Story by Rory Feek

  Song written by Rory Feek and Jamie Teachenor

  Recorded by Blaine Larsen

  I was writing one morning with Jamie Teachenor. It was the first time we had written together, and I met him at a building where he writes. We were just talking about ideas, our fathers, our backgrounds and different things, when my phone rang. It was the office at my daughter Heidi’s school, Zion Christian Academy, in Columbia, Tennessee. Heidi was 16 or 17 at the time. The lady said that a boy had committed suicide the night before. He was actually the boyfriend of Heidi’s best friend. The secretary wanted to know if Heidi could take the day off to be with the family. We had just seen this boy at a football game and he seemed like he was fine, so we were shocked.

  I hung up the phone and told Jamie and we started talking about it. Then we started writing about it. We didn’t start with the title; we just started with the story. That boy went to Mt. Pleasant and their football team is called the “Tigers.” The Lawrence Funeral Home is the name of a funeral home close to where we live in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, and Mooresville Highway is the highway out where we live, too. So all of these elements came from close to home.