I Wish Trouble Always Looked That Good

The artists I’ve covered so far have been in that ever-so-sought after “Nashville” category. But country music does exist elsewhere—and one of the major places it flourishes is Texas.

But Texas country ain’t the same as Nashville country. It’s more traditional, more original when it comes to the relationship between the artist and their art. Most Texas musicians write all of their own music and make their living right there in their home state. They’re signed to small labels and record a lot of live albums—and they are great live. They know how to rock, they know how to make you cry, and they know how to make you fall in love. They're that good.

And Wade Bowen is one of them. I had never heard of this guy until about two weeks ago, when one of his songs came across my Pandora, on my “Eli Young Band” station (another band from Texas). I instantly liked him and also instantly knew that he was from Texas. A few Google/iTunes Store searches later and I wanted to buy all of four of his albums. But I decided on If We Ever Make It Home, the latest release.


Not only is Wade Bowen handsome (hey, it counts!) but he has a unique, honest tone about his voice. And he writes, plays, and sings. He's also a family man. You love him, right?  


All the songs on If We Ever Make It Home are relevant and well written. They get stuck in your head and make you want more. “Trouble” is one of those songs. It' has the most addicting hook I may have ever heard:
"I wish trouble always looked that good." No, I'm not entirely sure what it means, but...does it matter? Here's the video:

This is something I don't normally take the time to say, but the music video for 

this song is actually pretty phenomenal. The cinematography is incredible. The colors, the angles, everything. And the best part is...it matches the song, word for word. It does exactly what a music video is supposed to do.

Remember when I said Bowen's tone is honest? Well, so are his lyrics. He starts out with 

"I wouldn't say I didn't see her coming," because "a light that bright's hard to miss in a place that dark." There's a double meaning to "a place that dark" here that I love--looking at the video for the song, you see that the speaker is in a dark room--a bar--when she walks in. She brightens it up. But "a place that dark" is also a state of mind. She brightens him up. This description has the potential to be really cliche--a sad guy meets and flirts with a pretty girl in a bar--but Bowen gives it to us so uniquely that I actually find it quite romantic, especially with what comes next: 

"She said yes to a drink while her fingers fumbled with a cross on a chain that was swinging above her heart."

That's an incredibly accurate, incredibly intimate image. There's also some great sounds in that line--drink/swinging; said/yes--and some noteworthy alliteration--She/said; fingers/fumbled; her/heart. The next section is especially poetic: 

"When the morning sun set

the midnight sky on fire, she left me like a thief not knowing what she took."   

Another impeccable image. In that one line, we know what's happened between this couple without being told explicitly. And in my humble opinion, these two have experienced exactly what the video portrays.

Now for that hook, which actually doubles as the chorus (is it stuck in your head yet?): "I wish trouble always looked that good."

The story continues in the next section, where listeners are guaranteed that nothing but an innocent exchanged has occurred between these two so far:

"I was still a little nervous when I got the courage to call that bright red number she’d written on the back of my hand/ A bottle of wine rode shotgun with a rose while I was driving cross town thinking about turning back"


The internal rhyme of nervous/courage is one of the most unexpected, satisfying combinations I may have ever heard. There are some others, too: still/little/written; rode/rose; while/drive(ing). The alliteration, again, particularly stands out in this section: courage/call; bright/back/bottle; wine/while. The word "back" is also used twice here, but in different ways. There's a word for that but...I don't know what it is! He talks about the back of his hand, and physically turning back to where he came from. Pretty clever, especially to use them so closely together.


"Now there’s a porch light burning a hole right through my windshield/There’s a silhouette standing at the screen door waiting for me"


We're given another reference to light--even if it is just a porch light!--reiterated from two earlier sections in the song: "a light that bright," and "morning sun." The woman is associated with light, a thing that the speaker clearly finds to be a lovely thing. And ironically, the lighting in the music video is one of the most impressive, almost breathtaking things about it. Coincidence? I hope so.