Saving Country Music’s 2020 Song of the Year

By Trigger, December 22, 2020

“The sadder the country song, the sweeter the relief. How and why this is the case is one of the great mysteries of music, and that magic should never be impinged upon by trying to use science to explain it away as simple chemical reactions in the brain or something else. No, these musical experiences are the stirring of the soul in ways beyond explanation.

No year has been more facilitating for calling upon musical antidotes for misery than 2020. One doesn’t need to list off the litany of reasons. We’re all patently aware of them. But along with the usual roundup of 2020 grievances, a mental health crisis of the likes we haven’t seen in generations has been one of the most devastating and pernicious trends because it doesn’t dominate the news cycle, it’s bubbling under the surface. We don’t see the stats of suicides, breakups, and divorces adding up like deaths and infections, but they comprise their own debilitating scourge. 

How strange it is that to hear someone else think about the unthinkable, it somehow alleviates our own troubled thoughts? It lets you know that you’re not alone, or however bad you have it, there’s someone out there that has it worse. Dallas, TX-based artist Joshua Ray Walker’s song “Voices” not only has the stuff to be considered the best-written country song releasing all year, it arguably includes one of the most devastating verses.” 

Read Saving Country Music’s 2020 Song of the Year featuring Joshua Ray Walker’s “Voices” HERE.