“I’m Already There”
Lonestar
Written by Gary Baker, Richie McDonald, and Frank Myers
Radio & Records
#1 (6 weeks)
June 22 – July 27, 2001
Billboard
#1 (6 weeks)
June 23 – July 28, 2001
“I’m Already There” is a classic record that was well-timed, smartly executed, and still annoys the heck out of me.
I don’t begrudge the song its success and I’m happy that it’s helped bring some comfort and peace to those separated from their loved ones, whether because they’re on the road, overseas, or have transitioned beyond this world. Heck, it even works as well for the first day at school as it does as a meme response when someone tells you to “Go to hell.” It’s versatile like that.
But this and the preceding Tim McGraw hit are really making it clear to me why I gravitated toward female artists during this era. These guys got the humanity right but don’t always deliver on the masculinity front. McDonald is simply too whiny on this record for me to appreciate it outside of meme form.
“I’m Already There” gets a B.
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An ok song. Maybe a “B-“. It won’t be remembered as time goes on. Again, I am astonished it spent that much time at #1.
Eh a take it or leave it song. I will admit I do enjoy “Mr. Mom” and “Front Porch Looking In” though. Guilty Pleasures.
Domestic bliss Lonestar is by far my least favorite. They sound simultaneously whiny and condescending. It reminds me of Chuck Wicks. I think I was harsh to give this an F because it’s not actively hateful, but I’ve always found it whiny, bombastic, and with a premise that is callously ignorant of the kid and mom.
While I have a fairly high tolerance and appreciation for soft, sentimental country, even I couldn’t stomach Chuck Wicks when he came along. My biggest issue with him was I didn’t believe a single thing I heard from him was genuine or sincere. He was the definition of generic, bland, and manufactured, imo. At least with Richie McDonald, I can actually sense some real emotion in his vocals, even if it’s sometimes over the top. The cocky and arrogant way Chuck came off during his stint on Dancing With The Stars only convinced me more that the sensitive, nice guy persona in his music wasn’t genuine.
I grew up on a steady diet of my mom’s Anne Murray records and in an era when even M & Ms commercials aspired to make the viewer cry. I have a very high tolerance and even affinity for sentimental overload, but even I reached my limit with this Lonestar offering. It was kind of astonishing to me back in 2001 that there was as an obvious market for a song that even I considered too cloying by half. As you said, it hits a sweet spot where it can serve as something of a white board for every family experiencing distance from one another, but for me the lack of specificity is what makes it feel too commercially contrived.
I was normally impressed with Richie McDonald’s vocals, even when he was more over the top than he needed to be, but I can’t defend him here as leaned in to the excess to the point of campiness. If ever there was a textbook example of “yesterday’s sentimentality not aging well”, it was this song, but for me it hadn’t aged well the third time I heard it. None of this is to say I hated the song. It was effective in what was attempting to execute and clearly found its intended audience. And I’d certainly sit through a listen to this song compared to “Amazed” if it came on the radio in 2025. But if there was any hope of Lonestar returning to their 90s sound and style, that hope flickered out with this song’s meteoric success defining the group as a bunch of softies who really, really, really love their families.
Grade: B-
Another case of a mediocre sentimental song that got a big boost in the wake of 9/11 and the ensuing wars.
I don’t think at the time that I regarded this song as whiney; however, I did regard it as insufferably dull. While I was never a big Lonestar fan, this is probably my least favorite Lonestar song. I was not that enamored with “Amazed” either.
“I’m Already There” goes in the list of songs that I originally thought was just okay when they first came out, but now appreciate more as time has passed. Especially now that I can relate to it. I love the idea that a loved one can still be with you in spirit or in the things around you when they can’t be with you in person or have passed on. I can definitely relate to that feeling after having lost my dad and step dad. Perhaps because of my personal, painful losses, I can now appreciate such sentimental offerings that I used to think were a bit over the top. I especially remember originally thinking that Richie McDonald’s vocals on this one went a little too overboard on the sentimentality, but now I just can’t be bothered to be bothered by that anymore. Actually, I now enjoy hearing that much emotion in his vocals which at least sounds sincere to me, especially now that I know what it feels like to be away from someone I love and wish everyday they could still be in my life. It helps too that the band members really did seem like genuine family men who loved their wife and kids whenever I saw them on TV throughout the early 2000s.
And also, as I mentioned in “Grown Men Don’t Cry,” I have a greater appreciation these days for male artists who were not afraid of being “softies” in the late 90s and early 2000s, especially since I feel that mainstream country has been swimming in toxic masculinity for well over a decade, especially ever since bro-country became a thing. Heck, even seeing how many male artists in the 90s and early 2000s were clean shaven, dressed classy, and had smoother voices is refreshing to me in today’s world where it’s almost mandatory for a male country artist to have a beard, dress like they’re at the gym or at a barbeque, and have gruff, gravelly, shouty vocals. Also, one of the reasons why I enjoyed country music from the 90s and early 2000s when I was in high school was because it was a refreshing change from the attitudes I hated from certain male students and teachers that I came across who frowned upon or bullied students (including me) who were less than macho or seen as “different.” But in country music, it WAS okay to be soft, emotional, and thoughtful (while still having some fun, too), which I really appreciated, and it provided a nice comfortable place for me to escape to.
This song also features one of the things I’ve come to recognize and appreciate about late 90s/early 2000s country, which is big, atmospheric production, especially on ballads such as this. I love how ballads like this sounded larger than life with the way they were executed, such as the loud, climactic drums right before the second chorus, the string section, and synthesizers. I especially love the melody the string section plays at the very end, which is so pretty. It’s a song that can sound great while standing outside in the daytime looking up at a large iconic building or being inside that iconic building’s large interior. Or while standing in a wide open area outside looking at the sunset or the stars above at night. I just find that approach to producing a song to be refreshing today compared to the constant, bland cookie cutter way songs are made now or how they try too hard to sound unique and edgy and just come off as gimmicky.
When I started revisiting this song around 2012, another thing I noticed right away is how well done the music video is. The large, beautiful, stylish luxury building the band is performing inside is simply beautiful to look at, and it’s such a perfect fit for the song’s big, atmospheric production. And similar to Diamond Rio from this time period, I love how classy the band is dressed and how slick and polished their image is in the video, which nicely reflects both the time it was released and the smooth adult contemporary style of music they were now putting out. I even love how Richie McDonald steps outside for a phone call (presumably from a family member) and starts walking around the city. That brief shot of him with the tall buildings towering over him is also perfect for how big that last chorus sounds.
The main memory “I’m Already There” brings back for me is when an old friend of my parents, George, came to visit us for the second time during the Summer of 2001 (he also came to see us during the Summer of 2000). I remember the song playing in the car while my parents were driving him back to the Dulles Airport the afternoon he left. Me and George were sitting in the back seat while “I’m Already There” came on as we were getting close to the airport, and when I looked over to him, he had fallen asleep, lol. Earlier during George’s visit, the four of us (George, my mom, my step dad, and I) all decided to go the the movies one night and we saw Swordfish, starring John Travolta and Hugh Jackman. My parents and I liked it, but George, who was more of a movie critic type, gave it a thumbs down. My mom playfully argued to him, “No, thumbs up!” lol. We really enjoyed having him around during both of his visits, and we miss him today, as he sadly passed away a few years ago.
On another occasion my parents and I went to the movies at the AMC Theaters in Potomac Mills Mall during the Summer of 2001, we all heard “I’m Already There” playing as part of the pre-movie music playlist of usually then current releases while we were sitting in the theater, waiting for the movie and previews to start. Both my parents already knew the song by then and I remember my step dad telling us they’re named Lonestar because all members were from Texas. At that moment it was clear to me that they were now “household names” by then.
The first few times I heard “I’m Already There,” I actually thought the piano intro sounded a lot like the intro to “As If” by Keith Harling, an album cut on Keith’s Bring It On album, which was a CD in my collection I enjoyed playing countless times in the previous year of 2000. “As If” is another pretty ballad that also has that nice, big atmospheric production I love from this period.
The summer of 2001 was also when my biological dad and I picked up Lonestar’s self-titled 1995 debut album at Walmart for only five bucks. I remember not only being amazed at how different they sounded then, but also how different they dressed with all the cowboy hats and western wear compared to their new slicker image. It’s actually almost comical listening to the more rocking, harder edged mid 90s Don Cook produced Lonestar and thinking it’s the same band that put out the Lonely Grill and I’m Already There albums. However, I enjoy both versions of the band for different reasons. As for the I’m Already There album, I love the futuristic looking way they’re dressed, along with the contemporary early 2000s backdrop in some of the photo shots featured in the album’s booklet.
I commented on the Tim McGraw entry that I dismiss sentimentality aging poorly, but I must admit this one doesn’t work as well for me for a couple of reasons. I’ve never been a big fan of Richie McDonald’s voice, so I resonate with those saying this sounds whiny. I also think the production is way too bombastic here. A more subdued production would work well.
I always imagined Toby Keith’s “I’m Not Already There,” from his “White Trash with Money,” album as a direct answer to this particularly limp and lame Lonestar hit.