DAVID NAIL FT. AUBRIE SELLERS - Why - 117 Music

Sometimes a decade’s later maturity wrapped into an older idea can add a touch to an already gifted songwriting masterpiece that will elevate it to new heights while allowing for the writer to place one foot firmly on their roots while stamping the other on the line of here and now.

For singer-songwriter David Nail that song officially arrives with “Why.”

“This is a song, 20 years after its birth, that is reborn,” Nail says. “Sometimes, you have to go back to move forward. I wrote this song when I first moved to Nashville, and it was the first song that made me say, ‘maybe I can really do this.’ Every couple of years, I would think about recording it, and 20 years later, I finally have!

Joined by Aubrie Sellers to accent the perspectives with stellar harmony in the chorus, the softer guided melody floats the emotional strains of Nail’s vocals as the memories of another done her wrong come creeping back in while forcing him to face his mirror of regrets, dissecting not only her goodbye but his own damaging behavior and the anger that defines the being of who he becomes. 

“You pulled out the driveway, left with no goodbye,” he sings in the opening verse, setting his downward spiral in motion as he then uses each of the verses to come face to face with his inner demons while confessing that he does a lot of screaming and blaming of her while also replaying the scene of her heartbeat asking why he acts the way he does.

“Why I do the things I do

Why I say the things I say

And why I tell you that I love you

But I treat you this way

Oh if I had the answers

Heaven knows we'd never fuss or fight,

But I don't know why”

Will she come back again or was this the last time?

Will he allow himself to understand his deeper-rooted pains and work toward healing his inner wounds before losing her to someone else?

Unanswered questions that loom large as he laments through gritted teeth and audible tears of frustration when he helplessly admits his own understanding of his toxic behaviors in the bridge, “And you’d think by now I’d look for help, that I’d want some help.”

David Nail has certainly found a ton of mainstream success in his career with songs such as “Whatever She’s Got,” “Let It Rain,” and “Red Light,” but it’s when he strips it back to his core definitions as a songwriter that we really discover the raw talent of who he is. Making the decision to revisit “Why” was clearly a hurdle for David to leap over, perhaps even healing an old wound for himself, but his bold decision also becomes an absolute blessing for the listener who adores the craft of songwriting.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)