Reba McEntire Album: “For My Broken Heart”

Reba McEntire's 1991 album FOR MY BROKEN HEART is her most personal, endearing album. It is intensely emotional, start to finish. This came out right after a plane crash killed her band manager and 6 band members. I recently rediscovered this album, and it comes at a very important time in my life. My father is slowly dying and this music just speaks to me. The way she sings is so heartbreaking, but her command is not overbearing. "The Greatest Man I Never Knew" is so sad but a beautiful, beautiful song. "If I Had Only Known" is very sad too, a song about wishing we knew when people would die so we could hold onto those last moments. The title track is a killer, "I guess the world didn't stop for my broken heart", so sad but a great song. I love the ballad "I Wouldn't Go That Far", a beautiful ballad about not being ready for various stages of love. "Is There Life Out There" was a modest hit, and gave us one of Reba's best videos. Her version of "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" is excellent and classic Reba. This is one of her best albums, if not the best album she's ever recorded.

I own just about most of everything Reba has released and this cd was so dear to my heart. She has gone through so much in her career and has survived. #1 in my heart!

This album was issued shortly after the death of my son. I was driving to work when a local radio station played "If I had only known". I had to pull to the side of the road with tears streaming down my cheeks. Now I treat each day as if it's my last on this earth. I make sure everyone knows how I feel and nothing is left unsaid.

There are great songs on this CD including "The Greatest Man I Never Knew" for those of us who wish we knew our fathers better, but the last song is the one which started me on the road to dealing with my son's death.

I'm afraid that because this CD is so sad that it will be overlooked by many future fans. I hope not.

My husband of 33 years passed away on February 17th of this year. Reba's song, "If I had only known" speaks volumes to me, and has been a wonderful comfort to me.

"For My Broken Heart" is Reba's most heartfelt album. Many of the songs touch your emotions with the ferocity of a live wire, while others gently tug at your heart with sublime subtlety. The human condition in all it's frailty has always been the benchmark of the best country songs, and Reba is especially unique in her deliverance of sad ballads. Like Patsy Cline, Reba is at her best when singing songs about sadness, tragedy and loss. "Bobby" is an endearing tune about a man who goes to prison for taking the life of his terminally ill wife, and his embittered son who slowly comes to understand why. "He's In Dallas" recounts the crumbling of a young woman's marriage and the loss of dreams. One of the most touching songs has to be "All Dressed Up (With Nowhere To Go), a sad tune about an elderly woman living in a retirement home, forgotten by her family as if she has none. "Buying Her Roses", "The Greatest Man I Never Knew" and "I Wouldn't Go That Far" have become classics. There is also a very good remake of "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia". The title cut, "For My Broken Heart" set the mood of the album, but the last song "If I Had Only Known" is the the most touching of all. Although the album liner notes don't identify it as "in memory of" the members of her band that she tragically lost, it seems to speak for itself. One can't listen to this song without shedding tears. This is a phenomenal album, albeit a sad one. In Reba's own words: "It seems your current emotional status determines what music you'd like to hear. That's what happened on the song selection for this album. If for any reason you can relate to the emotion packed inside these songs, I hope it's a form of healing for all our broken hearts." What can I add to that? Just this. Listen. Feel. Understand.