Country music has a long history of telling stories in its songs. But some songs have such a powerful story that they could end up as a feature film. We picked three country story songs that could also be the plot of an entire movie.
Videos by American Songwriter
“The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” by Reba McEntire
By the time Reba McEntire released “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” in 1992, she had already made a name for herself. She did so by telling stories in her music, with songs like “Whoever’s In New England”, “Fancy”, and more. But with “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”, the song tells a sordid tale of a man who was innocently hanged for committing murder.
“Well, they hung my brother before I could say / The tracks he saw while on his way,” McEntire sings. “To Andy’s house and back that night were mine / And his cheating wife had never left town / That’s one body that’ll never be found / You see little sister don’t miss when she aims her gun.”
Not surprisingly, McEntire also acts in the video. The song, written by Bobby Russell, was a big hit for McEntire. But before she released her version, Vicky Lawrence released it 20 years earlier. The song was a No. 1 hit for Lawrence first.
“Three Wooden Crosses” by Randy Travis
Few songs tell as powerful a story as Randy Travis does in “Three Wooden Crosses“. The song came out in 2002, as part of Travis’s faith-based Rise and Shine record.
Written by Kim Williams and Doug Johnson, the song begins with, “A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher / Riding on a midnight bus bound for Mexico.” As the song goes on, it is revealed that the narrator is actually the son of the hooker, who took the Bible from the preacher, and is the only survivor of a fatal crash.
The song idea came from Johnson. But it’s Williams who had the line, “It’s not what you take, it’s what you leave behind that matters,” in the song.
“Once we tied that (line in), we probably had the song written in 45 minutes,” Johnson recalls to The Tennessean. “And then Kim and I both just kind of broke out, broke down in tears when that bridge came out like it did.”
“Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks
“Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks), is pretty savage as songs go. Written by Dennis Linde and released in 2000, the song is about murder, although in a comedic way. Earl is the abusive husband. And his wife, Wanda, along with her best friend, Mary Ann, decides to murder him by poisoning his black-eyed peas so Wanda can be free for good.
The song says in part, “Earl had to die / Goodbye, Earl / Those black-eyed peas / They tasted alright to me, Earl / You’re feeling weak / Why don’t you lay down and sleep, Earl? / Ain’t it dark / Wrapped up in that tarp, Earl?“
Jane Krakowski and Lauren Holly help bring “Goodbye Earl” to life in the funny video.
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
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