I was drinking a bourbon while I was recording this song, which seems rather appropriate as ol’ Keith Whitley was a noted alcoholic and ultimately met an unfortunate and early death on account of alcohol poisoning^[1]. Maybe that’s how he got such a rich sounding voice… but even as perfect a country voice as his was, it couldn’t have been worth it to check out early at 34.

Considering his lifestyle, “I’m No Stranger to the Rain” seems like a perfect fit for Keith. The theme is undoubtedly dark, almost relentlessly so in the bridge, until there’s a little glimmer of hope in the third verse. But even that slight turn of hope is clearly in line with the reckless side that ultimately got him. The song has a happy-go-lucky bounce that provides a nice contrast to its darkness, but if you’re thinking about it, even that seems akin to a false drunken smile. Put it all together, though, and the song is solid. That’s one of the things that I love about pop music. While the theme of a song, specific passages of lyrics or the music might not be individually captivating in their own right, when put together in the right way, something truly special can be created. I think this song is one such example.

It’s sung in E, so I put a capo on the second fret and played it in D. There’s some really beautiful acoustic guitar featured at the beginning of the song that I kind of hinted at in my version, but I didn’t bother to learn it note-for-note. Most of the song is standard I, IV, V chords, but the inclusion of a switch to the VII adds some really nice tension and helps to keep this song interesting.

Keith’s voice is really warbly; he’s just all over the place but somehow always in key. I found it hard to recreate a lot of what he does in his version that is so great. It was interesting to note all his dips, scoops and jumps, though. It’s really a phenomenal vocal performance, and it was definitely appreciated, landing him and the songwriters Ron Hellard and Sonny Curtis a #1 hit.