“Whiskey Lullaby” by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss

Brad Paisley‘s “Whiskey Lullaby,” written by Jon Randall and Bill Anderson and featuring Alison Krauss, is a tender, mournful rumination on the pain of watching grief destroy someone in slow motion.

Drinking — and whiskey in particular — is ubiquitous in country music. In fact, the liquor is almost synonymous with the sort of rustic melancholy that tends to inspire folksy ballads. But in this respect, “Whiskey Lullaby” is unique: It looks beyond the pain that drives people to drink and instead sees the pain we bring on ourselves when we use substances to cope.

We watched him drink his pain away
A little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough
To get her off his mind until the night

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees

Randall told The Tennesseean that the song started with that one arresting line — “He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger” — which came from a conversation with a friend of his who was going through a difficult time. The lyric speaks to the destructive, even suicidal nature of extreme substance use in the midst of grief.

Country music singer-songwriter Brad Paisley

Paisley and Krauss trade verses throughout the song, telling the story of a young couple so shattered by betrayal that both drink their way to an early death. While the pain of the two lovers is deeply felt, it isn’t their song; the story is told by someone watching their grief from the outside, witnessing what it does to them.

We found her with her face down in the pillow
Clinging to his picture for dear life
We laid her next to him beneath the willow
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby

Paisley’s clear, even tenor and Krauss’s haunting harmonies bring the lyrics to life, giving warmth and gentleness to the song’s dark content. Paisley’s music video shows the doomed couple in the song as an Army vet and his unfaithful — yet guilt-ridden — lover, emphasizing the sweetness and optimism that was lost in their parallel declines. “Whiskey Lullaby” is an honest but tender look at the tragedy of losing someone to substance abuse.