One of the biggest tropes of country music is songs about trucks and/or cars.
From nostalgia trips like “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” by Alan Jackson to acts of revenge like “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood to judgements of personality like “TRUCK” by HARDY, the car or truck has become a character all its own in country music.
And then of course there are all the “pick up my girl in my truck and drive down a backroad” songs like…well, pretty much everything that came out during the bro country era.
But one area in which the car cis severely lacking is in sad country songs.
Like pretty much the rest of the country world for the last month, I have been listening to Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak on repeat.
But the one song that has quickly made its way to the top of my favorites list is “’68 Fastback.”
Maybe it’s just the English major in me that likes a good metaphor, but this song about a toxic partner who has broken down the singer really hit me the first time I heard it.
Hearing the singer get broken down into parts and piece themselves back together again embodies the beauty and sincerity that exists in all of Zach Bryan’s music and in country music.
So, of course, after hearing this song, I went on the hunt for more sad songs about cars or trucks. I mean, it’s country music. Surely there would be plenty for me to find.
I have to admit that after sifting through plenty of songs with the word “truck” in the title, I only found one that made me cry and one that some may consider kind of sad.
The first was “I Drive Your Truck” by Lee Brice. This song shows the singer working through the death of someone close to them (seemingly their brother), and the singer driving that person’s truck.
The small details such as the same radio station or baseball cap add to authenticity of the song, making it even more heartbreaking.
The second one I came up with is “That Ain’t My Truck” by Rhett Akins. Now this song isn’t as obviously sad as a song about being broken down and used or about losing a loved one. But that doesn’t mean that in the right circumstances that it can’t tug at the heartstrings.
The idea of going to your partner’s house, knowing they are also seeing someone else, and finding out that you weren’t chosen is pretty rough.
Overall, country music does a fantastic job at taking a simple object (a car) and making it a complex metaphor for toxicity, break-ups, and grief.
I just want to cry more, you know?
Sad country songs are just the best, so we definitely need some more heartbreaking songs about cars!