The choice is a shrewd one. “Oh, What a World”, written by Musgraves with Daniel Keyes Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, was already one of the quieter marvels of 2018, a song that looked at the planet’s strangeness and beauty and simply said thank you. Covering it is a risk, because Musgraves’ original is so lightly and deftly done. Reid doesn’t try to outdo it. He moves in and makes himself at home, which is the wiser approach with a song that gentle.<\/p>
His voice is the reason it works. Reid is no vocal gymnast, and the record is better for it. He sings with the weathered warmth of a man who has done some living, and the lyric sounds earned rather than recited. Where Musgraves floated, Reid walks, and the song gains a human weight. His own explanation is that the song “complements my spiritual dimension”, and you can believe him. It never preaches. The faith in it is the quiet sort, closer to gratitude than doctrine.<\/p>
The band deserves its credit, and the credits read like a roll-call of players who know when to hold back. Jason Roller’s electric guitars and Chris Condon’s acoustics sit alongside each other rather than competing, one supplying shimmer and the other grain. Dane Bryant’s keys fill the room with warmth without crowding the singer. Jay Gorman on bass and Robert Blair on drums keep the pulse steady and unhurried, giving the song room to breathe and, in the final stretch, to lift. Reid calls it a departure “on a high note”, and the arrangement honours that, building toward the close without ever raising its voice. Plenty of louder records fail to move a listener as this one does.<\/span><\/p> The video, directed by Tahir Niaz, follows the same principle. It is modest in ambition and generous in spirit, content to frame the song rather than shout over it. A cover of this kind is easily ruined by a director with too many ideas, and Niaz has the good manners to leave the music in charge. The pairing feels sincere and unforced, and it asks nothing of the viewer except attention.<\/span><\/p> What makes the single quietly remarkable is its sequencing, and the sense of an album knowing exactly where it wants to end. Placed after the “roller-coaster emotional ride” Reid describes, it works as an exhale, a hand on the shoulder and a window opened at the close of a long night. It is also, as the press notes point out, the only female-penned song on the record. That lets Musgraves’ lyric stand like a lantern amid the Texas songwriters around it, and Reid, to his credit, is willing to be the one carrying it.<\/span><\/p> None of this will change the shape of country-rock, and it doesn’t try to. It is a good song, sung honestly by a man who understands it, played by musicians who respect it and filmed with restraint. In a business that rewards volume, Rusty Reid has made something that rewards patience. “Oh, What a World” is a gracious and heartfelt farewell, and it deserves to be heard well beyond the faithful.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/rustyreid.com\/<\/a>\n\n\n\n\n
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