This is a song about connecting with someone who is lonely and perhaps socially isolated from what many of us take for granted with pillars around us like a spouse or close family. Vance sings this like he can identify with who the song is directed at and with a soulfulness that seems to really care about the individual who is in the ‘slough of despond’ and feels they have no one to share their dark experience.
The song starts with an invitation into that person’s world offering not just sympathy but empathy and to go deeper with them and work together to make things better. There is the offer to spend time with who is carrying the burden with an optimistic note that a problem shared really can take someone into a brighter place. The language progresses intimately referring to him as a ‘brother’ and that in time things can change but that progress is conditional on them agreeing to the invitation to let him in to carry the burden. There is a recognition that the problem is real and not imaginary and collectively by working together a smile will emerge from the darkness.
A great song which also encourages us all to be burden bearers and be on the lookout for those in our social circle who are hurting and are open to sharing that deep hurt they feel and where the outcome can even be just a smile where without your intervention wouldn’t happen.
This is a song about connecting with someone who is lonely and perhaps socially isolated from what many of us take for granted with pillars around us like a spouse or close family. Vance sings this like he can identify with who the song is directed at and with a soulfulness that seems to really care about the individual who is in the ‘slough of despond’ and feels they have no one to share their dark experience.
The song starts with an invitation into that person’s world offering not just sympathy but empathy and to go deeper with them and work together to make things better. There is the offer to spend time with who is carrying the burden with an optimistic note that a problem shared really can take someone into a brighter place. The language progresses intimately referring to him as a ‘brother’ and that in time things can change but that progress is conditional on them agreeing to the invitation to let him in to carry the burden. There is a recognition that the problem is real and not imaginary and collectively by working together a smile will emerge from the darkness.
A great song which also encourages us all to be burden bearers and be on the lookout for those in our social circle who are hurting and are open to sharing that deep hurt they feel and where the outcome can even be just a smile where without your intervention wouldn’t happen.