The Highwomen–the supergroup of Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires–delivered a hopeful message when they included “Crowded Table” on their self-titled 2019 debut album. The song was released as a single and serves as the band’s mission statement that was destined for the group even before it was fully formed.
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Meaning Behind the Song
“Crowded Table” was co-written by Hemby and fellow revered songwriter Lori McKenna, with additional contributions from Carlile. Hemby came into the writing session with McKenna equipped with the song’s title, knowing they were writing with The Highwomen in mind. Hemby wasn’t a member of the group yet when Morris, Shires and Carlile shared with her the vision for The Highwomen and what they were looking for in songs.
“She said, I want a house with a crowded table,” McKenna recalled to CMT of the line Hemby threw out that then became the opening line of the chorus. “I really just followed Natalie’s lead. She had this in her heart…I was so lucky to be part of the journey.”
A couple of days later, Hemby took the song into the studio with The Highwomen and producer Dave Cobb where they asked her to join the group. “The song evolved into a different chorus once Brandi got a hold of it,” McKenna explained, adding that she and Hemby “poured our hearts into it.” “The chorus really opened up and became sort of more worldly and more universal once Brandi put her spin on it.”
A series of verses sprinkled with encouraging words of affirmation like, You can hold my hand / When you need to let go and If it’s love that we give / Then it’s love that we reap lead into the anthemic chorus that finds their four voices uniting in perfect harmony. I want a house with a crowded table / And a place by the fire for everyone / Let us take on the world while we’re young and able / And bring us back together when the day is done, they sing triumphantly.
[RELATED: The Highwomen’s Crowded Table]
Hemby recalled how they wrote the song at the piano in her studio and it fell out in roughly 30 minutes. She and McKenna kept finishing each other’s sentences that then transformed into verses and the chorus.
“I think that the table and the fire being a metaphor for bringing people together that don’t all think the same thing,” Carlile explained to CMA about the song’s meaning. “We don’t all believe the same things even in The Highwomen. But the fact that we can come to the table, that we can break bread and then we can go out into the world as activists and as women…but we come home to each other at the end of the day, that’s what families do. I think that’s a really beautiful sentiment everybody needs to hear right now.”
The Highwomen debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and No. 10 on the all-genre Billboard 200. “Crowded Table” proved the power of the message when it won Best Country Song at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
“I don’t exactly know where this magic started in Natalie’s heart with this title, but I loved following her down that road,” McKenna proclaimed. “I think a song like this can change its meaning over time. It’s a song about love and I think that when they’re that simple, it can ride along with us in our experience.”
Photo by Alysse Gafkjen
