Trisha Yearwood - On a Bus to St. Cloud

One of the things that keeps me listening to Country music is that in many ways it is "music for grownups." There's nothing wrong with youthful rebellion - I did my share of that, to be sure - but there is more to life than that. As Trace Adkins puts it in "Songs About Me", they're songs about lovin' and livin' and good-hearted women, about family and God.

Especially as I get older, they are sometimes songs about regret, about the path not taken.

Nobody does that like Trisha Yearwood.

She's quite the Country music powerhouse: four platinum and five gold albums.

Her story is quite interesting. A small town Georgia girl who grew up on a farm, learned how to sing like an angel, moved to Nashville, worked as a receptionist at a recording studio. She made demo tapes, and that got her a back-up vocal gig on Garth Brook's No Fences album - back before he was famous. They became friends, and when he broke out, she toured and performed with him. But she had bigger plans.

On A Bus To St. Cloud is one of my favorites. It's almost not even country - in fact, it's pretty hard to classify into any genre bigger than "songs about being human." It has minimal accompaniment; until the end, it's pretty much just Yearwood and a piano.

It's also a song that I don't think I could have understood at 20. A song for grown ups.




On A Bus To St. Cloud (songwriters Peters, Gretchen)

On a bus to St. Cloud, Minnesota
I thought I saw you there
With the snow falling down around you
Like a silent prayer
And once on a street in New York City
With the jazz and the sin in the air
And once on a cold L.A. freeway
Going nowhere
And it's strange, but it's true
I was sure it was you
Just a face in the crowd
On a bus to St. Cloud

In a church in downtown New Orleans
I got down on my knees and prayed
And I wept in the arms of Jesus
For the choice you made
We were just gettin' to the good part
Just gettin' past the mystery
Oh, and it's just like you, it's just like you
To disagree
And it's strange but it's true
You just slipped out of view
Like a face in the crowd
On a bus to St. Cloud

And you chase me like a shadow
And you haunt me like a ghost
And I hate you some, and I love you some
But I miss you most...

On a bus to St. Cloud, Minnesota
I thought I saw you there
With the snow falling down around you
Like a silent prayer

Bootnote: Trisha Yearwood is also know as Mrs. Garth Brooks. At one of her concerts, he came out on stage, knelt down, and proposed. In front of 20,000 people. That's one confident man.