At the end of a bar

You can find your future
Run into your past
You can look for answers
At the bottom of a glass
You can make a best friend
And never know their name.

(At The End Of A Bar / Chris Young, Mitchell Tenpenny, Chris DeStefano)

When Tracy Lawrence released 'Time Marches On' in 1996 as the second single and title cut off his fourth studio album, he had no idea it would become the biggest hit of his career. The song written by Bobby Braddock spent 3 weeks atop the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart and was nominated for Song of the Year by the Country Music Association (CMA) the very same year.

Not only did Bobby Braddock write 'Texas Tornado', which gave Tracy Lawrence another number-1 hit the year before in 1995, but he is probably best known for writing the song 'He Stopped Loving Her Today'. A number-1 hit for George Jones in 1980, which many consider the ultimate country hit of all times.

"And I just got the idea of writing a song about this family that just spends their whole lifetime in about 2 minutes and 40 seconds", Bobby Braddock remembers about the writing of 'Time Marches On' in a 2016 interview with tennessean.com. "And [then] put some things in there that we’re not supposed to put in country songs, like dementia." Or as songfacts.com summarizes it: "By the end of the song, the philandering father is dead, the long-suffering mother has Alzheimer's disease, the baby sister is a grandmother, and the dope-smoking brother battles high cholesterol."

While many artists from the 1990s no longer release new music, 54-year old Tracy Lawrence never stopped putting out new material. Even though his last radio single ('Up To Him') dates back to 2009, he still remains creativ. His latest endeavour is a retrospective project  ("Hindsight 2020"), which has been released over the past 3 years and consists out of 3 volumes for which he re-recorded 5 of his biggest hits each and complemented them with new songs. Hence 'Time Marches On' can be found on the 2022 release of Volume 3 titled "Angelina".

And inspite of its sobering family story, the undeniable melody -put to the imagined sound of a ticking clock- still sounds timelessly fresh more than 25 years after its release. Just like the eternal realization that the only thing in life which remains unchanged, is change. No wonder that the number-1 hit on the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) chart for August 22nd, 2022 uses not only the Brooks & Dunn hit 'Brand New Man', but in particular the Tracy Lawrence hit as an appropriate reference for its bar scene.

At the end of a bar 

You can hear a cover band 

Playing 90’s songs 

Become a brand new man 

To time marches on 

Time marches on.

(At The End Of A Bar / Chris Young, Mitchell Tenpenny, Chris DeStefano)

'At The End Of A Bar' describes various possible scenarios one might encounter inside of a bar, not unlike Toby Keith did in his 2003 hit 'I Love This Bar'. It is the fifth single from the current duets project "Famous Friends" by Chris Young and gives him his 13. number one. Co-songwriter and duet partner is 33-year old Mitchell Tenpenny from Nashville, best known for his pop and R&B driven sound. His only full length studio album so far was titled "Telling All My Secrets" and released in 2018. It featured 'Drunk Me' which builds on an emotional hangover from a broken relationship and reached number 2 on the radio charts.