Carly Pearce is back and better than ever.
On the heels of a very public divorce, the death of her beloved producer Busbee, and the shit show of a year we all know as 2020, she somehow managed to find herself again.
Carly’s recently released, downright phenomenal, project 29 is a collection of seven very personal songs which describe her experience and feelings in the wake of everything that has consumed her lately.
Easily a standout song from the project, the title track “29” speaks to all of the unexpected trials that, unbeknownst to her, come along with being that age. In particular, her divorce.
And despite it being incredibly personal, she says it’s still a universal message:
“I’ve played ‘29’ for some of my friends, and they’re very similarly saying to me, ‘We know this is your story, but I hear myself in this.’ And I think that’s just kind of the universal message of why I named the collection 29, which I feel like is a pivotal year for people.
You are old enough to know better, but you still have wonder, and you’re still excited about life, but maybe things in life didn’t turn out exactly as you thought that they might.
And you kind of feel like, ‘Oh my goodness, am I running out of time? Because I feel old now.’ And for me, 29 was a huge year. I lost a lot of things. I lost my producer, and I also clearly went through a super painful divorce and never thought that was going to be a part of my story.”
Here’s more from Carly on the new album:
Written by Carly herself, along with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne, “29” is an incredible track that anybody who’s gone through a divorce, and really hardships in general, will be able relate to. She details some of the different things she thought would start happening at this phase, like getting married and buying a house.
Unfortunately, all of that didn’t quite work out the way she thought. The best part about the song is that it takes a deep dive into the messiness of having and managing certain expectations that come along with different stages of life. She gives us a peek into what she now knows about all too well; the crushing blow that can be felt when what you envision for yourself doesn’t work out the way you think it should.
The chorus sums it up best:
“’Cause for me, twenty-nine
Is the year that I got married and divorced
I held on for dear life, but I still fell off the horse
From a Miss to a Mrs., then the other way around
The year I was gonna live it up
Now I’m never gonna live it down”
Real people with real stories… this is country music.
