3 Country Bridges That We Don’t Talk About Enough

The bridge is easily the most underrated part of any song. Personally, for me, a good bridge can totally elevate the hook in ways that no other part of the song can. Country music, as a storytelling genre, can especially benefit from a strong bridge. Here are three country bridges that just make the song. So much so, you might remember the bridge more than the song itself.

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“Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood

A lot of people think a bridge has to be lengthy, but sometimes you only need a few sentences to get your point across. In “Before He Cheats”, the storyline is already pretty obvious, but just when you think Carrie Underwood has said everything she needs to say, she whips out this line: “I might’ve saved a little trouble for the next girl / ‘Cause the next time that he cheats / Oh, you know it won’t be on me.”  I mean, c’mon, there’s no denying that this bridge is absolutely killer.

“The Story Of Us” by Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is known for crafting a good story song, it’s part of what she does best. Back in her country music days, this was the ultimate example of that: the use of the “story” analogy, Swift adding the cheeky “Next chapter” at the end of the first chorus, it’s perfect. Not to mention, the bridge in this song leaves listeners on a tiny bit of a cliffhanger, as Swift asks if there’s any hope for her and the guy in the song. “But I would lay my armor down / If you say you’d rather love than fight.” Even though Swift is singing about one feeling the entire time, she makes it feel like there’s an obvious progression, and that’s what makes this song genius.

“Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson

No one does a hook quite like Cody Johnson. Something I’ve noticed, though, is that Johnson doesn’t always like using a bridge. For him, sometimes it’s enough to have a solid chorus that he repeats at the end without adding another section, and it usually works pretty well. For “Til You Can’t”, however, I think that a bridge was needed, just to really drill in the song’s message before he sings it one last time. Throughout the song, Johnson provides plenty of examples of life’s fleeting moments, but I think his singing “‘Cause you never know how bad you wanna / ‘Til you can’t someday”  really nails it on the head. 

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