Whiskey Lullaby
"Whiskey Lullaby" is a song written by Bill Anderson and Jon Randall. The song was a duet recorded by American country music artist Brad Paisley and bluegrass artist Alison Krauss on Paisley's album Mud on the Tires. The song was released on March 29, 2004, as the album's third single, and the 11th chart single of Paisley's career. Whiskey Lullaby peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, and No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song won the 2005 Country Music Association Song of the Year Award.[1] It was certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.[2]
"Whiskey Lullaby"
March 29, 2004
2003
4:19 (album version)
3:46 (single version)
Content[edit]
"Whiskey Lullaby" is an acoustic ballad in the key of B minor, accompanied by acoustic guitar and Dobro. Its narrative centers on a couple that has a painful separation leading them both to drinking themselves to death. In the first verse the heartbroken man dies and in the second verse the guilt-ridden woman dies.[1]
Paisley sings the first verse and chorus which focus on the male character, and Krauss sings the second verse and chorus which focus on the female character.[1]
Music video[edit]
The music video is set in the years just after World War II. It begins with a bus full of war veterans, one of whom, played by Rick Schroder (who also directed the video) looks at a picture of himself kissing his wife under a willow tree (the wife is played by Marisa Petroro, who also appeared in the video for Montgomery Gentry's "Speed"). He has a flashback of swinging her in his arms under the tree and telling her he will love her forever; she tells him that once he returns from the war, they will start their family. As the man steps off the bus and into his house, he sees pictures of the two of them. Again, the man hears his wife's voice telling him that they will start a family when he returns home. But the scene is shattered when he finds his wife in bed with another man. He leaves and the song begins.[4]
The first verse of the song in the video shows the man drinking excessively, unable to get his wife off his mind. His alcoholism kills him, and the first chorus depicts his funeral in 1946 and his wife crying.[4] The second verse depicts the wife's own descent into alcoholism; while inebriated, she sees the face of her deceased husband in the faces of other men. She exhibits guilt for her husband's death and finds solace only when drinking alcohol.[4] Just before the second chorus, the woman cries and drinks alcohol from a bottle at her husband's grave; finally, the chorus depicts her funeral in 1947. At the end of the song, a little girl (played by Rick Schroder's real-life daughter) looks at the graves and sees the ghosts of the couple, who are hugging and kissing. The crosses on the graves reveal that the couple were Richard (born 1916, died in 1946) and Katherine Bartlett (born in 1919).[5]
Interwoven with the storyline are shots of Paisley, and Krauss performing the song on stage at a concert hall.
The music video was filmed on June 6 and 7, 2004, in Nashville. It premiered on June 30, 2004, on CMT.