“Rainbow” by Kasey Musgraves

Every once in a while, a song comes along that tugs at my heartstrings with such force that I wonder what it is about it that resonates so deeply with me. Usually, after thinking about it, I find that it’s because the song evokes a memory — perhaps a long forgotten one — of a time when I was feeling intensely emotional — a time when I was madly in love and ecstatically happy, or a time when I felt like the world had caved in around me and I had nowhere to turn. The Beatles “Here Comes the Sun” is like that. I can’t listen to it without feeling a rush of positivity and warmth. So is Sarah MacLaughlin’s “Angel.” Though it evokes feelings on the other end of the emotional spectrum, it never fails to move me almost to tears. And now I’ve just added another song, Kasey Musgraves’ “Rainbow,” a beautiful ballad about opening to the possibility of healing, to that list.

“Rainbow” is the closing song on Musgraves’ critically acclaimed, multiple Grammy Award-winning album, “The Golden Hour.” Co-written by Musgraves, Shane McAnally and Natalie Hemby six years before its release, it features the singer’s pristine soprano vocals accompanied by a single piano in the background. The lyrics are equally as uncomplicated, which gives the listener a very powerful sense of intimacy. It’s as if Musgraves is singing to only to them.

“Rainbow” begins:

When it rains it pours, but you didn’t even notice
It ain’t rainin’ anymore,
it’s hard to breathe when all we know is
The struggle of staying above, the rising water line.

Well the sky is finally open, the rain and wind stopped blowin’
But you’re stuck out in the same old storm again
You hold tight to your umbrella, darlin’ I’m just tryin’ to tell ya
That there’s always been a rainbow hangin’ over your head

The imagery of a person in so much pain that they can’t even see the possibility of healing is so powerful here, as is the message that hope is something we need to open our hearts to find. Closing your umbrella means taking a chance that the rain will pour in again. But it also means you may notice that a rainbow has appeared in the wake of the storm. As Musgraves sings,

If you could see what I see, you’d be blinded by the colors
Yellow, red and orange and green, and at least a million others
So tie up your bow, take off your coat and take a look around

‘Cause the sky is finally open, the rain and wind stopped blown’
But you’re stuck out in the same old storm again
You hold tight to your umbrella, darlin’ I’m just tryin’ to tell ya
That there’s always been a rainbow hangin’ over your head

Whether we are struggling with the pain of loss or simply trying to find our way in a world that makes no sense any more, this is such an important message. Life can get better, but only if we let ourselves be vulnerable again.

A Fitting Tribute

Kasey Musgraves is something of an anomaly in country music — a progressive female voice in a distinctly male-dominated conservative world. Since 2008, she has written and sung about subjects that Nashville has typically avoided — gender identity, sexuality, and recreational drug use, to name just a few. Her 2013 single “Follow Your Arrow”, for example, contains the lyrics, “Make lots of noise, kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls if that’s something you’re into/ When the straight and narrow gets a little too straight, roll up a joint, or don’t / Just follow your arrow wherever it points.”

So it’s not surprising that Musgraves has dedicated “Rainbow” in part to the LGBT community, although she originally penned the lyrics as a note of reassurance to herself during a time when she was struggling with her own feelings of insecurity. Later, the song became a favorite of her grandmother — so much so that Musgraves performed it at her funeral after she died.

A simple ballad performed with little fanfare, “Rainbow” is nonetheless a powerful song. It could easily be played at a memorial for a loved one as a reminder to those present that their hearts will someday heal. At the same time, it is a song that anyone who’s feeling lost or sad can listen to and feel comforted that they are not alone.

You can watch Kasey Musgraves perform “Rainbow” live at the 61st Grammy Awards in the video below. You may also enjoy the song’s official music video, which is available here.