Keith Whitley, Country Legend

Growing up in my home we were constantly surrounded by country music, sixties rock and roll and gospel. My parents were born and raised in a small town called Pippa Passes in the mountains of Kentucky. I suppose in all honestly I heard quiet a bit of blue grass music too, although for me sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between blue grass and country. I mean I do know the difference, but they both instill the same qualities in my mind. I was a normal teenager though and went through a brief period in the late seventies and early eighties where I didn’t listen to a whole lot of country and did the rock and roll thing, well as best as I could in my home. My parents didn’t restrict us a lot on what we could listen to, but they did have their limits. My dad use to say my music didn’t make any sense to him, but then I’d just remind him he liked “Little Richard”. I didn’t quiet think that music made much sense to me at the time. In the later half of the eighties I went through a period where all I listened to seemed to be country. To me it was a life line of words that told me I wasn’t alone in some of the emotions I was feeling. A good country song can get right to the core of your being if you truly listen to it. It was then that I ran across Keith Whitley and his amazing voice and talent. Listening to his songs I could almost feel his sadness and understanding that life isn’t always what one hopes it might be. There was also a beauty in the tones and quality of his delivery. It didn’t take me long to be hooked and I had to have everything he recorded and put out there. When he died in 1989 it nearly broke my heart, not because I thought him attractive, but because I was saddened for the songs he would never write or sing in the future. He is a talent I think is missing and one rarely anyone ever comes close to matching. To me he is the epitome of country music exemplified. Keith Whitley charted nineteen singles on the Billboard country charts and out of those he had five consecutive number ones: “Don’t Close Your Eyes”, “When You Say Nothing at All”, “I’m No Stranger to the Rain”, “I Wonder Do You Ever Think of Me”, and “It Ain’t Nothing”. The Last two songs listed were not released until after Keith Whitley’s death. Although I love most of his work, my favorite song of his and one I can relate to very intimately is “I’m Over You”. It’s the song of a man trying to convince himself that he doesn’t still have feelings for someone no longer in his life. I’ve been there done that, but in the end I think I really am over my past. I wonder if the man in the song was ever over his love. I know what it’s like to sit at a bar and drink and to go endless days hurting for something you’ve lost. So to me it’s my favorite work of his.

I’m Over You

Where there's a cloud, don't mean there's rain

Tears in my eyes, don't mean there's pain

Don't flatter yourself

I'm over you

Things aren't always what they seem

You can't believe everything you read

On my face

I'm over you

You heard I'm drinking more than I should

That I ain't been looking all that good

Someone told you I was taking it rough

Why they making those stories up

When I'm over you

There were times that if you'd been around

You would have seen me broken down

But now you won't

I'm over you

So if I seem a little bit cold

It only means you've lost the hold

You had on me

I'm over you

You heard I'm drinking more than I should
That I ain't been looking all that good
Someone told you I was taking it rough
Why they making those stories up
When I'm over you

You heard I'm drinking more than I should
That I ain't been looking all that good
Someone told you I was taking it rough
Why they making those stories up
When I'm over you

I'm over you

I'm over you

.

To me this song speaks volumes. I still sit and wonder sometimes what other wonderful songs might have been born if he had lived, or if he would have faded into the back ground like a star burning out. Either way his passing at his peak has forever sealed him in as a country legend.