Hard To Love Again

[Verse 1]
You shook my mama’s hand
laughing in my daddy’s chair
Passing rolls around the table
like you’d always be there
We planned out every Christmas
you traced our last name in the dust
Now those frames on the mantel
feel like they lied to us
[Chorus]
Now it’s hard to love again
hard to even try
Every promise sounds so hollow
every word feels like a lie
I gave you all I had
you gave it all to him
Now forever’s just a story
and it’s hard to love again
[Verse 2]
Your coffee cup’s still waiting
by that crooked kitchen sink
I keep staring at the doorway
where you’d stand and wink
My phone lights up at midnight
I still hope it might be you
But I can’t trust that smile
after what you put it through
[Chorus]
Now it’s hard to love again
hard to even try
Every promise sounds so hollow
every word feels like a lie
I gave you all I had
you gave it all to him
Now forever’s just a story
and it’s hard to love again
[Bridge]
I see you in my rearview
in that dress my sister loved
Granddad saying, “She’s a keeper”
guess he never saw the proof
If I ever let arms around me
I’ll be braced for the end
‘Cause you taught my weary heart
how it’s hard to love again
[Chorus]
Yeah it’s hard to love again
hard to let you go
I’m stuck between the truth
and the girl I used to know
I gave you all I had
you gave it all to him
Now this broken, bleeding heart
swears it’s hard to love again
Yeah this broken, bleeding heart
swears it’s hard to love again

country, Heartfelt sad country ballad, male vocals. Sparse picked acoustic and soft pedal steel in the verses, brushed snare and warm upright bass easing in by the first chorus. Chorus swells with stacked harmonies and a weeping fiddle line answering the vocal. Intimate, close-mic vocal that cracks on the big lines; final chorus drops to guitar and voice, then band glides back in for a gentle resolve., heartfelt, sad