19911. For My Broken Heart
2. Is There Life Out There
3. Bobby
4. He's in Dallas
5. All Dressed Up (with Nowhere to Go)
6. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
7. Buying Her Roses
8. The Greatest Man I Never Knew
9. I Wouldn't Go That Far
10. If I Had Only Known
2. Is There Life Out There
3. Bobby
4. He's in Dallas
5. All Dressed Up (with Nowhere to Go)
6. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
7. Buying Her Roses
8. The Greatest Man I Never Knew
9. I Wouldn't Go That Far
10. If I Had Only Known
I often & completely by accident head in the opposite direction of everyone around me. True to form, I go off to college a huge lover of music, open to any edgy, obscure, undiscovered music I can find, but end up latching on to what many would call the most treacly, middle-of-the-road, old-lady (no offense to old ladies) music out there.
Yes, the first album to really impact me during college was Reba McEntire's For My Broken Heart. Why did it so grab me? How did this happen? Simple. Let me just say straight out (I know this is no surprise to anyone): I love sad songs. And For My Broken Heart is sad. Virtually every song. Some are really, really sad.
For those who don't know, Reba McEntire lost her entire touring band in an airplane crash about 8 months before For My Broken Heart was released. She had already been working on the album, of course, but that tragedy permeated the rest of the production; she replaced some songs, changed the title track from a duet to a solo, and just sang with a different feeling. And I remember seeing her perform on the CMA Awards that year, singing For My Broken Heart backed by Dolly Parton's touring band. It was beyond compelling & I just had to buy it.
Turns out, For My Broken Heart the song was just the tip of the iceberg. The album hit every possible sad note it could, from loneliness (All Dressed Up) and death (If I Had Only Known) to lost loves (He's in Dallas) and distant fathers (The Greatest Man I Never Knew). And oh yeah, let's not forget that ditty about assisted suicide (Bobby). Sounds like what every college freshmen would be rushing to listen to, right?
For me, the artistic expression of emotion is always best accomplished by music. For My Broken Heart is a tad more literal and overflowing in that respect than many of the other albums I love, but it is nonetheless beautiful and pure.
