The 30 Day Song Challenge: Day 13

Today’s category is…

A Leaving Song.

Here are the staff picks:

Leeann Ward: “She’s Crazy For Leavin'” – Rodney Crowell

For me, this song plays out like a movie scene in one of those wacky romantic comedies. The guy is over-the-top trying to convince his girl not to go, saying that “she’s crazy for leaving”, while everyone else at the bus stop pretty much knows he’s the crazy one and tells him to just let her go. I especially love the hook, “You can’t stop a woman when she’s out of control.” Few can write tongue in cheek like Crowell and Guy Clark, I tell ya.

Dan Milliken: “She’ll Remember” – Dwight Yoakam

The zany first minute never gets old for me.

Tara Seetharam: “Let Him Fly” – Patty Griffin

To me, one of the most beautiful songs ever written. It so perfectly captures the equally peaceful and equally crushing “beauty of just letting go.”

Kevin Coyne: “Consider Me Gone” – Reba McEntire

Smart, adult, and even-tempered, this record claims the moral high ground while still managing to get in a subtle dig or two.

25 Comments

  1. One of my favorite leaving songs is Pam Tillis, “It’s Lonely Out There.” I love the storytelling – how at first she feigns indifference to her lover’s decision to leave her. It goes from “Go on, walk away, but don’t say I didn’t warn you” to the desperate plea of “We got such a good thing here – Don’t go now baby” as she realizes that she’s going to be just as lonely as he is.

  2. Ah, I love “She’s Crazy for Leaving”, as with the other songs on this list. All great songs.

    Speaking of great songs, you could either think of it as a leaving song or the opposite, but Brad Paisley’s “When I Get Where I’m Going (feat. Dolly Parton)” was the first song that came to my head when I saw the topic of this post. We’re all set to leave for a better place sooner or later, but hopefully we all get enough time to sort out what we want to do here first :)

  3. a lot of good ones here, but I’m going to give a nod to one song just because it was so different…”Down Came a Blackbird”–Lila McCann. I’ve always like songsthat tell the same story in a different way. A good recent example is “Alyssa Lies.” Child abuse has been done, but the POV is the father of the new friend of the victim..cool.

  4. Travis in VA. mentioning Kathy Mattea’s “Walking Away a Winner” made me think of Trisha Yearwood’s “Wouldn’t Any Woman” since Bob DiPiero was a co-writer on both, with Tom Shapiro on the former and Michele McCord and Mark D. Sanders on the latter.

    from “Wouldn’t Any Woman”:

    I’ve loved you to the limits
    of my self respect,
    Now I’m Leaving with what’s left
    wouldn’t any woman

  5. “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”, the Jimmy Webb-penned masterpiece that no less an authority than Frank Sinatra called “the greatest torch song ever written.” Of course, there’s Glen Campbell’s definitive version from 1967, but not to be outdone was Isaac Hayes in 1969 (his version stretches out to nearly nineteen minutes!), and, later on, alt-country singer Heather Myles.

  6. There are so many country leaving songs I wouldn’t even know where to begin. One that stands out though is “He Oughta Know That By Now” by Lee Ann Womack. It really captures the sadness and hopefulness of leaving.

    Other songs I think are worth mentioning:
    “I’m Movin’ On” – Rascal Flatts
    “Georgia” – Carolyn Dawn Johnson
    “Bye Bye” – Jo Dee Messina
    “A Little Past Little Rock” – Lee Ann Womack
    “Nothin’ But The Wheel” – Patty Loveless
    “Wide Open Spaces” – Dixie Chicks
    “Much To Young (To Feel This Damn Old) – Garth Brooks

  7. Walkaway Joe-Trisha Yearwood
    Blue Angel-Aaron Tippin
    Whole Lotta Love on the Line-Aaron Tipping
    Three Chords and the Truth-Sara Evans
    You Don’t Even Know Who I Am-Patty Loveless
    She Drew a Broken Heart-Patty Loveless
    The Grand Tour-George Jones
    If You Couldn’t Get the Picture-George Jones
    Letting Go-Suzy Bogguss
    New Strings-Miranda Lambert

  8. Walkaway Joe-Trisha Yearwood
    Blue Angel-Aaron Tippin
    Whole Lotta Love on the Line-Aaron Tipping
    Three Chords and the Truth-Sara Evans
    You Don’t Even Know Who I Am-Patty Loveless
    She Drew a Broken Heart-Patty Loveless
    The Grand Tour-George Jones
    If You Couldn’t Get the Picture-George Jones
    Letting Go-Suzy Bogguss

  9. “There Goes My Everything” by Jack Greene (Engelbert Humperdinck also had a good recording).

    I ‘m torn between this song and “Sounds of Goodbye” which was recorded and released by three artists at roughly the same time, so it became a regional hit for each act (The Gosdin Brothers, Tommy Cash, George Morgan) without becoming a huge national it for any of them). One of the first songs written by Eddie Rabbitt, it did become a huge hit in the Pacific Rim, especially Australia, for a Malayasian born singer named Kamahl

  10. I would also like to add “Adios”, another Jimmy Webb song, this time done by Linda Ronstadt on her 1989 album Cry Like A Rainstorm. She has had a penchant of doing heartbreaking ballads like this, both pop and C&W, in her time; and this is one of her best (IMHO).

  11. “Almost A Memory Now” and “Goodbye Says It All” by Blackhawk are both good. Oh yeah, and SHeDAISY’s “Little Goodbyes” puts a nice little spin on the concept.

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