History TearJerker / CountryMusic

* The year 2020 was difficult for the world, and in particular for fans of country music. The COVID pandemic took Joe Diffie, John Prine, Charley Pride, and K. T. Oslin, while Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels, Doug Supernaw, Hal Ketchum and Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers passed away from other causes.

* The year 2020 was difficult for the world, and in particular for fans of country music. The COVID pandemic took Joe Diffie and John Prine, while Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels, Doug Supernaw, and Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers passed away from other causes.

* The year 2020 was difficult for country music. The COVID pandemic took Joe Diffie and John Prine, while Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels, Doug Supernaw, and Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers passed away from other causes.

* September 8, 2017 saw [[http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/09/08/troy-gentry-and-don-williams-gone-one-tragic-day-country-music/647870001/ the separate deaths of two popular American country music artists]]: Music/DonWilliams and Music/MontgomeryGentry's Troy Gentry. The former died at the age of 78 after an illness, the latter died at 50 in a helicopter crash just hours before he and partner Eddie Montgomery were to begin a concert. Many country music artists were deeply upset by their losses.

* Music/TheOakRidgeBoys gave us "I'll Be True to You." She loved him and waited for him. Eventually he did love her... but not until after she drank herself to death pining for him.

** By this point you will be sobbing.

* "Paint Me a Birmingham," released concurrently by Music/TracyLawrence and Ken Mellons. It describes a man who happens upon a painter on a beach, and of anything he could ask the artist to paint, he asks for a picture of the house he planned to share with his lover with her sitting on a swing in the front yard hugging him so "she'll be his again." The Ken Mellons version is softer and sounds as though he is trying not to cry throughout, which will be a Tearjerker for some and Narm for others.

** "This One's for the Girls" is a song that can be tear triggering to women who have either had body image problems and/or is about take on another stage of life. It may be more of a sentimental song, than truly a sad song -- but may also, however, be considered {{Narm}} for others.

** "This Ain't Nothin'" can be rather tearjerking. It's about an old man who had his house destroyed by a tornado, but mentions that he's been through much worse in his life (like the death of his wife). While some of the lyrics (not to mention that the title is a double-negative) can make it {{Narm}}y to some, the way the singer delivers it makes it rather touching.

** Music/WhitneyHouston's long since rocketed the song to Narm levels, but the original "I Will Always Love You" is heartbreaking, because the vulnerable, quiet way she sings it evokes the image of someone who's falling apart, but trying her damnedest to be gracious and leave with a smile.

* Austin Roberts' "Rocky," a 1975 tale about a young couple in their early 20s that, although having its narmish moments (such as a rambunctious kids' birthday party), has the tearjerker in full effect during the final verse. There, the young, beautiful (and we do mean beautiful) woman learns she has a terminal illness; in the final verse, it is revealed she has died ("''Now it's back to two again, our baby girl and I/Sometimes she looks like her own sweet mother, sometimes it makes me cry''"), and that he often has long periods of despair. Successfully covered that same year for the country market by singer-songwriter Dickey Lee.

* Music/KeithUrban's "Tonight I Wanna Cry," a ballad that is only voice and piano, describes a man at home alone after a wife or lover has left him and trying to just let his emotion out ("let it fall like rain from my eyes") can either be this turned UpToEleven or {{Narm}}, depending on who you ask.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0QCCNCkvzI You're Gonna Miss This]]". This song can be tear triggering to people who are about to leave a stage of their lives behind them.

* Music/BradPaisley's "He Didn't Have To Be" is a song about a guy whose childhood involved a single mom going out on dates (which he compared to job interviews) hoping to meet someone who would be the dad to her kid. Much like "I Don't Call Him Daddy", anyone who's been on any end of the situation (the kid, the mom and the new dad) can definitely identify.

* Rex Allen: The former silver-screen cowboy had his tearjerker with the 1962 hit "Don't Go Near the Indians," a song where a middle-aged man implores his son (through whom the song's perspective is from) to stay away from the Native American reservation, but for years refuses to explain why. Then, the son, now in his late teens, has fallen in love with a stunningly beautiful teenaged girl, about a year older than him, called Nova Lee. The son wants to marry him, and finally the father's years of hem hawing around the truth catches up with him, and he must explain why, setting up the tearjerking heartbreak: Years earlier, when the boy was just a baby, he was kidnapped from the reservation, in retaliation for a rouge tribesman killing his own little boy ... and he feared the day he would meet Nova Lee ... because he knew the son and Nova Lee were biologically brother and sister.

* "If I Don't Make It Back" by Tracy Lawrence. A soldier asks all his drinking buddies to do all sorts of things in his honor if he doesn't make it back (have a beer for him, drive his old Camaro, etc.) Instead of explicitly stating that the soldier dies, it jumps from "If the good Lord calls me home / I'd like to think my friends will think about me when I'm gone" straight to "Well, Miller Lite ain't my brand / But I drink one every now and then in his honor..."
* "Paint Me a Birmingham," released concurrently by Tracy Lawrence and Ken Mellons. It describes a man who happens upon a painter on a beach, and of anything he could ask the artist to paint, he asks for a picture of the house he planned to share with his lover with her sitting on a swing in the front yard hugging him so "she'll be his again." The Ken Mellons version is softer and sounds as though he is trying not to cry throughout, which will be a Tearjerker for some and Narm for others.

* "Raymond" by Brett Eldredge. At first, it's just a song about a nursing home worker who plays along sympathetically with an old woman's Alzheimer's-fueled insistence that he's her son... but in the second verse, he says that he wishes he were indeed Raymond. The twist is that [[spoiler:Raymond died in combat in Vietnam]].

* "Love, Me" by Collin Raye can make one tear up the last time through the chorus. Even though that chorus has already been heard once, the final verse changes the meaning of it completely. Very well done. (The credit should go to Skip Ewing, who wrote the song.)

* Travis Tritt's "Tell Me I Was Dreaming". You might make it through the song if it's on the radio -- but, if you're watching the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAh8Dqr1I-I video]], tears will flow. (While the song is about a breakup, in the video [[spoiler: it's a death.]])

* Gary Allan has a few:

* "Something to Be Proud Of" by Montgomery Gentry. It starts with kids listening to their grandfather tell war stories, and leads into the narrator finding his wife and having a family, but he has a crummy job and they don't have much. He wonders if he's let his father down, and if he's ashamed of how things turned out. His dad tells him "If all you're really doing is the best you can, you did it, man. That's something to be proud of."

* September 8, 2017 saw [[http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/09/08/troy-gentry-and-don-williams-gone-one-tragic-day-country-music/647870001/ the separate deaths of two popular American country music artists]]: Music/DonWilliams and Montgomery Gentry's Troy Gentry. The former died at the age of 78 after an illness, the latter died at 50 in a helicopter crash just hours before he and partner Eddie Montgomery were to begin a concert. Many country music artists were deeply upset by their losses.

* Kathy Mattea:

* Patty Loveless has a couple:

* Lee Brice:

** "I Believe" (where the singer speaks to a loved one who has passed on). The fact that Diamond Rio employs incredible harmonies in these heartbreaking songs only makes it that much worse.

* Diamond Rio's got a number, including:

* Big & Rich has a couple:

* Trace Adkins has several:

** WhitneyHouston's long since rocketed the song to Narm levels, but the original "I Will Always Love You" is heartbreaking, because the vulnerable, quiet way she sings it evokes the image of someone who's falling apart, but trying her damnedest to be gracious and leave with a smile.