Country artists often write songs with a wink and nod. Every country artist has a song or two that is expertly crafted around an extended metaphor. Kelsea Ballerini practiced that skill on her 2022 track “LOVE IS A COWBOY.”
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Behind the Meaning
As one could probably glean from the title, Ballerini conflates a wild ride of a love affair to the temperament of a cowboy. Rough around the edges, stops you in your tracks / Wrecks you in the worst way when it looks like that, she sings. The verses cover how hypnotizing new love can be, while the chorus reveals the downsides.
You can wrap your arms around it but you can’t make it stay
All the bad ones say they’re good and all the good ones ride away
A little El Dorado and a little bit John Wayne
Love is a cowboy, mm-mm
Naturally, there are many references to cowboys, horses, lassos, and other Western gear throughout the song. If country artists know how to do anything, it’s write songs to a theme. Makes your heart feel like wild horses in your chest / Trying to catch, it’s like tryna tame a wild, wild west, she sings in the second verse.
In the next verse, she brings up the oh-so-country idea of neon-lit bars and whiskey drinkin’. It’s this verse that really drives home the notion that falling in love with a cowboy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Take you dancin’ in that neon, leave you cryin’ in it too
Yeah, gets ya drunk like whiskey and higher than the moon
So when you get that feelin’, hold on to your boots
Love is a cowboy, mm-mm
Ballerini isn’t the first artist to release a song in this vein, but it is one of the most well-fleshed-out comparisons between a wayfaring cowboy and heartache.
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum)
