Life isn’t a movie. Here in the real world, there’s no crew crowded behind a bulky camera, no demanding director barking orders and no smarmy scribe feeding us witty lines. Worst of all, perhaps, there are no dissolves, fades and fast cuts propelling us past the down moments. We never jump past the last breaths of a dying relationship nor do we step out a door and find ourselves anywhere but the porch. Instead, exiting a relationship finds us toting baggage—aka regrets—and coming to grips with all of it takes more than two hours.
For whatever reason, however, the best songs—though far more concise—capture the feelings of such things in a way celluloid can’t. With the latest single from her forthcoming Into the Blue album, “All That I Need,” country-inflected singer-songwriter Sara Bug crystalizes the mixed emotions overhanging many breakups: “It wasn’t all bad/but I sure wish it was/Now that we’re breakin’ up/and the good times are comin’ to me just like a flood.” Moving on means leaning on friends and music and, for a time, distracting one’s self from the heartache by heading down the backroads. One can easily visualize Bug driving in her 4×4, dog by her side, and Alan Jackson blasting from the stereo. It’s an infectious declaration that, though regrets may linger (and they often do), life goes on.
The Old Grey Cat 