I discovered the official video for Whiskey Lullaby by Brad Paisley with Alison Krauss. It’s not new as it came out in 2010. I remember the song without the video really had an emotional impact on me. Still, I think the video won’t leave you dry-eyed. It’s here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZbN_nmxAGk
I think the story songs you hear in country music have such a significant impact because you know the story they tell has happened. It’s true. Perhaps, it’s not exactly like the story you know from your life, but you know somewhere out there are people who have lived the story. A much older story song, He Stopped Loving Her Today, brought recognition of its truth to the listeners, if not tears.
From a writer’s perspective, it’s a mistake or choice one person made that brought devastation to another person. The people around them see what has happened, and even the one person who made a mistake or choice is injured. These stories are not easy to write, even though you know they are just characters on the written page. You wonder if you don’t back off a bit in your description because it hurts you as a writer almost as much as the story’s characters. It is probably the reason that today we have few tragic stories in novel form. They tend to take the form of a short story. Tragedy is perhaps the most challenging novel to write.
