Hush, Hush

Album: Annie Up (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song about sweeping family secrets under the rug to maintain appearances was inspired by the Pistol Annies' experiences over the 2012 holiday season. "After we came back... we were talking about how horrible it was," said Miranda "Lonestar Annie" Lambert with a laugh.

    "So we took a little bit of truth from each of our family experiences and wrote this song," added Ashley "Hippie Annie" Monroe.

    "It's about the truth. The truth is so much easier than lie on top of lie on top of secrets," Angaleena "Holler Annie" Presley explained. "The truth will set you free."
  • "It is 100 percent true," Monroe told The Boot of the tune. "Everybody has something. There's no family I've met that's perfect; that doesn't have some sort of an issue. We're saying 'Hush Hush,' but what we're really saying is, 'Come on, speak up. Let's tell each other what's wrong, OK? A tattoo here down my side, you don't like it? Why don't you like it? Let's talk about that.' Then it's over, instead of all the secrets and all the feelings getting hurt."
    "You can't divorce 'em," added Lambert. "You only get one family, and you cannot not have your family. So, there's really no option but to get the hell over it."
  • Monroe had to warn her grandparents beforehand about the "sneaking out behind the barn to spark one" line. "Well, they have the red barn, so I kinda gave myself away," she told Billboard magazine.
  • The song's music video features some of the Annies' real-life family members, as well as '50s and '60s recording artist Brenda Lee and Country singer Jim Lauderdale. The latter plays a Southern preacher, who invites his congregation to a Sunday afternoon church picnic, the three bandmates dish up some gossip.

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