home sweet home by russell howard

so, today’s song, home sweet home by singer-songwriter russell howard, took me by surprise, and here’s why. i have a bizarre prejudice against the phrase home sweet home.

i know. WEIRD, right?

i can’t exactly tell you why other than to admit i have a bias against certain words and phrases (which is ridiculous, considering i’m a writer and everything). they’re like nails on a chalkboard to me. and home sweet home has been one of those phrases in the past that i shy away from ever personally using because: a) it’s utterly cliché, b) it’s radically overused, and c) it reminds me of something needlepoint and framed.

HOWEVER. this song. friends, this song made me realize there is at least one place that i dig this phrase, and it’s right here. a song about displaced love, home sweet home is an intimate look at what it feels like when the person you adore has moved on in both location and heart. it reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books, anna and the french kiss by stephanie perkins (go HERE to read my rambling adoration of this story) – in it, the MC, anna, reflects on what home is. is it a location? a building? or is something more? here’s the first time she really starts to consider what it means to her:

And for the first time since coming home, I’m completely happy. It’s strange. Home. How I could wish for it for so long, only to come back and find it gone. To be here, in my technical house, and discover that home is now someplace different.

But that’s not quite right, either.

I miss Paris, but it’s not home. It’s more like . . . I miss this. This warmth over the telephone. Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place? Bridgette used to be home for me. Maybe St. Clair is my new home.

and russell howard gets that concept. home sweet home is truly a lovely song, with it’s gentle guitars and heartbreaking vocals. i ended up putting it on repeat, just totally enamored with the following lyric:

i did not ask to cross my stars with you.

so, so gorgeous.

and oh, friends, doesn’t that really sum up how one feels about love once it’s gone? love is such a tremulous, fragile thing. it’s hard to control, hard to find, and even harder to let go of. and i simply adore how howard has dealt with that idea.

home is in the city
a city i’ve never stepped in
she moved there last september
i heard she’s got a boyfriend

and all i want is what you have
i don’t work this hard just to be glad for you
and home sweet home is in your arms
and i did not ask to cross my stars with you

and home is in the city
a city i’ve never slept in
she said i should come there
if only for the weekend

and all i want is what you have
i won’t come that far just to be mad at you
and home sweet home is in your arms
and i did not ask to cross my stars with you

home sweet home
oh, my home is not my own

home is in the city
a city i’ve never seen

here’s another song off howard’s latest release, safe to say, which sounds totally different than home sweet home (but in a good way!):