Travis Tritt: (1) I See Me
by Country Music Saved My Life
I will admit that I'm a sucker for parent-to-child-themed songs.
Many
country artists have recorded songs about children, some autobiographical,
others not. George Strait (Love Without End, Amen), Tracy Adkins (Then
They Do), Reba McEntire (You're Gonna Be), Brad Paisley (Anything
Like Me), Conway Twitt (That's My Job), and, more recently, Alan
Jackson's You'll Always Be My Baby are some of the immediate
examples that come to mind.
Outside the country universe, some good songs also deal with the parenthood theme: Neil Young's Here For You (for
his daughter Amber Jean), John Lennon's Beautiful Boy (for his
son Sean Lennon), Kurt Vile's Too Hard (for his daughter
Awilda Vile), Bob Dylan's Forever Young (for his son Jakob
Dylan), Thom Yorke's Sail To The Moon (for his son Noah
Yorke), Keith Richards' Wild Horses (for his son Marlon
Richards), and Loudon Wainwright III's ironically titled Rufus Is a Tit
Man (for his son Rufus Wainwright).
Despite
the common theme, we can find different moods and feelings related to
fatherhood in these songs: pride, fear, humor, hope, amazement, and so forth.
But, for me, I See Me is still the tune that captures all of those feelings with mastery, remaining the most compelling out-and-out example addressing the topic. After listening to this song, I find it kind of all-in-one as it captures all those aforementioned feelings throughout its narrative.
New traditionalist that embraces a bluesy Southern Rock and raw honky-tonk sound, Travis
Tritt cut this tune to his 2004's My Honky Tonk History, his finest collection up to that time, one that sticks close to his love for roots country and honky-tonk and runs the gamut of what embodies authentic, although updated, country
music.
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| Photo by Sergio Leenen CC BY-ND 4.0 |
Penned
by Californian songwriter Casey Beathard and former NFL punter Chris Mohr (a
Georgian, as is Travis Tritt), the tender tune I See Me peaked
at #32 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The production
surrounds the song with soft, mainly acoustic instrumentation and uses a string
section that echoes the smoother sounds of the late '60s and early '70s, the
time when the Nashville Sound led the race. This string section is provided -
no surprise - by the top-notch
(I'm not using "Okie"
in a derogatory sense but as a badge of honor to all those salt-of-the-earth
and of good stock people.)
Casey
is a gifted and successful country music songwriter that is the pen behind many
country music recording artists' tunes, some of them top-ten singles
(Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, George Strait, Terri Clark, Tim McGraw, Tracy
Byrd, Justin Moore, Trace Adkins, and Aaron Tippin are some of those bestowed
with his skills). For his contributions, in 2004 and 2008 he was awarded
Songwriter of the Year from Broadcast Music, Inc.
The
song lyrics show perfectly how the arrival of children affects our lives
completely and permanently, in every conceivable way. Day to day becomes messy,
confused, loaded with tasks, noisy, and very tiring all at once, but also
full of joy, hopes, good laughs, and fun. The days are long, but the years are
short, as the popular adage says. There are struggles but there are also
rewards.
Sonically, I
See Me features a blend of finely-tuned traditional dobro
instrumentation and a clear-cut countrypolitan arrangement - there’s no
shortage of soft string section throughout. But instead of bludgeoning you with them, this music arrangement draws
deep from the well of what's come to represent "new traditional" country music in the early 20th-century.
The
result of Casey's spin on the topic is a very solid tune that indulges my
penchant for bright, cleverly written tunes. The song's power comes not
only from its sheer ubiquity (as it's all about time-spanning love) but also
its pared-down harmonic construction, that Travis Tritt and crew
beautifully deliver:
"How he got that GI Joe in the church this morning
I don't know but he ain't listening to the preacher
Like his mama taught him to
She's wanting me to cross the aisle
Go, sit over there with him awhile
Make him turn around and sit up straight
Stop playing in the pew
To watch him is all that I can do
Cause I look at him and I see a boy
And I see trouble and I see joy
See innocence and headstrong
And a heart full of dreams
I look at him and I'm so amazed
I'm so proud and then so afraid
That the apple didn't fall quite far enough from the tree
Yeah, I look at him and I see me
I
See Me is a touching song and it becomes even more powerful with the
emotion and trustworthiness that Travis brings in his rendition (himself
the father of three children).
The lyrics
deal with every parent's fear that their children will make the same mistakes they
did, that they will stray too far from their values and principles, and that
they will suffer for minor things during childhood and young days. And
it's also put on display a feeling that seems common to all parents: the hope
that their children will become better versions of themselves.
Country
music has often told the story of heartache, but what makes this song even more
moving and heart-wrenching every time I come back to it is the fact that one of
its authors, Casey Beathard, unfortunately, lost his third child at the age of
22, about 15 years after the song was composed.
I
imagine how difficult it must be to deal with this painful and heartbreaking
loss, but it seems that Casey, at least to some extent, managed to overcome his
loss.
Recently,
he co-wrote Hell Of a View with his longtime collaborator
Erich Church, recorded to Church's brand new trilogy Heart & Soul.
Each part of this triple album was released at different times, with a week
between the first (Heart) and the third (Soul); the second of
the series (&) was dropped exclusively to members of his
"Church Choir" fan club in between the two.
He has
also co-wrote (alongside Monty Criswell and Jeremy Stover) Consecutive
Days, a strong ballad about being grateful for each day, for Justin Moore’s
recently released Straight Outta The Country album.
Casey can steadily build steam throughout a track and has undoubtedly built a legacy for himself with several chart-topping singles, and he deserves all the respect and admiration for the struggling he had to face and for what he did and has done for country music. I sincerely hope and wish faith and strength for this great country music sculptor.
Song Information
• Writers: Casey Beathard and Chris Mohr
• Producers: Travis Tritt and Billy Joe Walker, Jr.
• Recorded at Emerald Sound Studio in Nashville, TN
• Release date: August 17, 2004.
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