Beat Up Bible

Album: The Breaker (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this song, Kimberly Schlapman sings about a worn-out bible that "Don't look like much but it'll get you through hell."

    "It's a beautiful, heartfelt sentiment about faith and family" her bandmate Karen Fairchild said.
  • Little Big Town used several songwriters on The Breaker album. This one was written by Shane Stevens, Hillary Lindsey and Cary Barlowe.
  • Speaking with Radio.com, Karen Fairchild expanded on the song's meaning:

    "It doesn't matter what you believe, the things that give you faith and your family are the things that you go back to in the times that you're struggling. and it's the truths that were passed down… for a lot of people in the south, it's centered around their faith and having that Bible and that belief in God. It gets passed down from generation to generation and it's what people hold on to when they're struggling."
  • For both Kimberly Schlapman and Jim Westbrook, the song acts a reminder of significant women in their lives. "That song just fills up my heart," Schlapman said, "and I see my great-grandmother and her little trailer where I used to stay with her, reading her Bible."

    "I see so many pictures in my head as I sing that song," she continued. "We have, in my family, a beat up Bible… The binding's falling off, some of the pages are just stuffed in there… In the front is written the births of all the children since the mid-1800's. Ah! It's so special. It's such a treasure."

    Jimi Westbrook added how the song becomes a living picture of his grandma as well. "Where I grew up, I lived here and my grandmother was kinda just out the back door," he said. "And I spent a lot of time there when my parents were working… I stayed with her. She's got the big centerpiece Bible when you walk in the living room." It's out under the Jesus picture."

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