Goodness gracious… these are absolutely incredible.
Morgan Wade officially released her fan-favorite song “The Night” on the deluxe edition of her debut album Reckless, and last year, she put out the sequel in “The Night (Part 2).”
Both songs resonated very deeply with her fans, as she shines an important light on her own mental health struggles with anxiety and depression in the very honest lyrics.
While she is now sober and tries to do everything she can to push herself to be better everyday, there are plenty of times where she feels she still falls short, which is what she describes in Part 2.
And today, she released The Night: The Collection, which includes two separate acoustic versions of “The Night (Part 2),” as well as the studio versions of Part 1 and 2 .
The acoustic renditions are both super raw and stripped-back, with one being a studio acoustic recording and one being a live acoustic recording, and they’re my favorite versions of the song because of how her vocals shine with the lyrics in their purest, most basic form.
You can hear every bit of emotion Morgan clearly feels very deeply, as she describes old memories of the time when she wrote the first song, saying she knows she’s still human and isn’t pretending like it’s not possible she could fall back into old habits one day:
“I wrote a song about being suicidal
Put it on the internet and it went kinda viral
And my old friends we don’t talk anymore
But I still have the memories of waking up on their floor
And I’m mighty proud of where I’m at
But I’m one bad day from falling back
And I’m one bad day from relapse
And I’m gon’ find myself right back in rehab, yeah”
I don’t know of any other country artists within the mainstream scope who would be willing to go fully there with a song like this, much less two of them, and be so open about how much they’re actually struggling.
She shared some of her thoughts about the release in a post on Instagram, saying this collection was a “completely fan-driven release,” and I don’t think it gets any better than this:
“This collection is a completely fan-driven release — we’ve been hearing for a long, long time just how much folks wanted ‘The Night’ in all these forms — so it’s out now!
Thank you for always supporting and listening. Big thanks to @clintwells for producing the acoustic versions. Link in bio! -MW”
You can always count on Morgan to address topics most artists wouldn’t even dream of touching, and not only that, but she does it with such sincerity and honesty that makes the music truly important and valuable.
These songs really mean something to people, and it’s amazing to see her continue to wear her heart on her sleeve to help people truly feel less alone through her art.
The acoustic studio cut of “The Night (Part 2)”:
The live acoustic version:
And the official music video from last fall:
