The cover we needed from Kelly Clarkson.
She’s performed countless country songs on her daytime talk show during the Kellyoke segment, like Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”, Travis Tritt’s “Here’s A Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)”, Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, and even Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”.
And yesterday, she did a beautiful rendition of Lainey Wilson’s hit “Watermelon Moonshine,” which was featured on her Grammy-nominated 2022 Bell Bottom Country record.
Written by Lainey along with Jordan Schmidt and Josh Kear, “Watermelon Moonshine” details Lainey’s first love, her first time, and how that memory is “always gonna taste like watermelon moonshine.”
She describes how, even though she was way too young to know anything about love, she fell hard for this guy back then and thought it would last forever as “they gave each other more than our hearts.”
But as the title suggests, she needed the help of a little clear liquid from a mason jar to calm her nerves:
“I don’t remember where we got it from
I just remember feelin’ all grown up
Takin’ pulls like it ain’t no thing
Never told him it was my first drink
But I told him that he was the one
You’re so sure when you’re that young…”
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, but Kelly has a voice that sounds so perfect for country (well, she can sing the hell outta anything, but I digress), and I really hope she’ll do a country album one day.
If you scroll through some of the comments in the Youtube video, many of them echo that same sentiment, and for damn good reason.
Similar to Post Malone, I think she’s one of the very few artists that could genuinely pull it off, so here’s to hoping one day it might happen.
Do yourself a favor and check out the performance here:
“Watermelon Moonshine”
