CMT Blog: Archive

Have I been listening to the next IBMA song of the year? I know it’s already got my vote. Rhonda Vincent’s recording of Jerry Salley and Lisa Shaffer’s “I Gotta Start Somewhere” swept me away the first time I heard it. Most of us can recall a romantic breakup we didn’t want to happen and the hollow, helpless feeling that followed it. That’s the dark emotional territory this song explores, and Vincent’s forlorn rendering of the lyrics make the terrain all the more bleak.

Now Vincent has further enhanced the song with a music video, thus enabling us to see as well as hear her misery. It’s an effective piece of film that stays fairly faithful to the lyrics. The normally vivacious singer really does look distracted and heartbroken as she goes through the motions of ridding herself of a painful memory. My only qualm is that the director has her driving around in a stylish old convertible when her mood clearly calls for more somber equipage, perhaps a hearse. But there are some telling touches, too, as when she thumbs through a stack of old vinyl albums and lingers over a Dolly Parton record, or when she momentarily loses herself completing a jigsaw puzzle. She looks the most empty when she’s back in her room removing her earrings after a date that hasn’t worked out.

Here’s hoping the video will expose the song to audiences that might otherwise never hear it. And I’m urging members of the International Bluegrass Music Association to pay it special attention. This is music worth awarding.