Hello all! Welcome to the new feature Sunday Morning Time Capsule which will be a weekly feature here at Critically Country. Since I started the blog I have been trying to come up with unique weekly or monthly features that I can do for the blog and this is one of the new ones that I am unleashing. The other ones being the weekly Re-Charting The Chart and the March Madness feature coming soon. In this feature I will do a throwback spotlight on a song, album or subject. I say spotlight instead of review because I won’t be giving grades for this feature just discussing the piece of work. Nostalgia can be a powerful thing so hopefully you all enjoy this piece as much as I do. I am happy to take requests for the Time Capsule if you have any so speak up if you do.
The very first Sunday Morning Time Capsule piece is the song “You’ll Always Be My Baby” by Sarah Evans. Sarah Evans was my choice for this first piece because she is probably my favorite female country artist from the early 2000 period which is my favorite country music period. I know that of the people that I follow on Twitter who are around the same age as me feel the same way about this time period because it is the earliest memories of music that we have.
“You’ll Always Be My Baby” is about unconditional love even when the people that we love disappoint or hurt us in some way. There are three parts to this song two of which the little girl let somebody down. The song starts off with the girl at the time ten years old doing something bad. Despite begging her mother not to tell her father she does anyway. The little girl expects that her father will be furious with her but, instead he puts his arms around her and tells her that no matter what she does he will always love her and she will always be his baby.
When the little girl turns 21 she fears that she has let God down. On a country road one night she was with a boy and things went farther than she had planned. She was ashamed of what she had done but instead of God being angry with her he let his love surround her. In the last verse, the song comes full circle with the girl having a son of her own. She looks at her son and realizes that there will come a day when he gets into trouble and she prays that she will be as understanding to him as her father was to her.
This might be Sarah Evans best song which came off her album Real Fine Place To Start in 2005. I really miss the early 2000’s style of country when you still heard fiddle and steel guitar from even the pop leaning country acts. I think that Sarah Evans is one of the more underrated artists of this time as there are many other great songs that she had during this time.
Hope you all enjoyed the first Sunday Morning Time Capsule and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section!
Critically Country 
I’ve always liked the 90’s and 2000’s era of country music. If anything, they were both time periods that had the perfect balance of creating songs that sure, had a little more polish than country songs before them, and didn’t always have something smart to say, but at the same time clearly sounded like they belonged in the genre. Even when you got some corny songs, they still usually had some type of message to them or had some flavor to them in the lyrics. As far the 2000’s were concerned, yeah the electric guitars were turned up a little louder, but you could usually hear some fiddle and steel as well.
I have bias towards the 2000’s, especially 2007-2010 since that’s the era I discovered and and later loved country music.
Great idea for a post, I can always use a little more nostalgia!
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Hey Leon. That’s the same time period that I discovered the genre as well. After 2010 came around is when you saw the real shift away from country instrumentation and the leap towards the bros. That 90’s-2000’s corniness doesn’t really bother me and it’s a bit of a reflection on that time period in television and music. My next post will go a lot farther back in the nostalgia but I think this song/artist represents well what I loved of this period.
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I’ll add that Sara’s husband is former Alabama Crimson TIde quarterback Jay Barker. He is one of the principals behind an popular annual country music festival in Alabama called “Rock the South” and hosts a sports radio show.
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The early to mid 2000s is my favorite era of country music, and I love Sara Evans. Hopefully we’ll get some new music from her soon. Fun fact: when I was in 4th grade, I sang Sara’s “Born to Fly” at a school talent show. So her music brings back a lot of awesome memories for me. 🙂
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Glad to hear it! That’s why I started this feature because nostalgia can be an awesome thing. And I have some good news for you on the new music front. She is supposed to have a new album out early this year.
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