Home has many definitions, from where one rests one’s head to the final destination on a baseball diamond. It can be literal and metaphoric, sometimes both at once; to borrow from the opening lines of a Bacharach-David song, “A chair is still a chair, even when there’s no one sittin’ there/But a chair is not a house and a house is not a home/When there’s no one there to hold you tight/And no one there you can kiss goodnight.” Home is much more than where one sleeps and eats, in other words. It’s where loved ones, family, friends and faithful four-legged companions linger forever in one’s mind, where memories were, are and will be made.
“Back to Nashville (Part 2)” is Sara Bug’s third spin ‘round the song. The first, on her colorful 2021 debut, sounded somewhat like a young Dolly Parton fronting Devo, while the second—a remix released with K-Wylde earlier this year—embraced electronica (I wouldn’t be surprised if the K in K-Wylde was short for Kraftwerk). For her upcoming Into the Blue album, however, she’s opted to reframe the song with traditional country accoutrements. (To hear her explain the renovation herself, click here.) The mark of a strong song is that it transcends category; it’s a comfortable fit with country, pop, rock, R&B/soul, and any of the many sub-genres therein. Such is the case here.
The song travels a similar terrain as “A House Is Not a Home,” albeit in a more colloquial manner: “I’m back in Nashville year after year/Tryin’ to make a family in the dirt out here/But somethin’ ain’t real bout these cities and these lights/And there’s no place more lonesome than Broadway at night/But when I found you back in Nashville it finally felt like home.” There’s a kicker of a last line in that catchy chorus, however: “Til you left me again for that Westward road.”
To put it another way, home is where the heart is.
As Bug explained in a press release in 2021, the song is “kind of about hating Nashville. It’s also about someone who’s really special to me who lives far away. Every time we see each other it gets harder to go back to Nashville alone.” Though she’s no kid, she still sounds like a young Dolly to my ears, while the traditional country arrangement offers a solid foundation for her musings on love, loneliness, hearth and home.
The Old Grey Cat 