Heartbroke

Album: Highways & Heartaches (1982)
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Songfacts®:

  • One of four #1 Country hits on Skaggs' Highways & Heartaches album, this was written by the Nashville songwriter Guy Clark. A tale of a difficult breakup, with lyrics like "Sheer madness prevails upon reason to yield," is typical of his intricate songwriting.
  • Clark recorded this on his 1981 album The South Coast of Texas, and Skaggs played on the track. In our 2011 interview with Guy Clark, he told us: "I was out in L.A. recording it and we were looking for a fiddle player - we couldn't find anybody who played fiddle like we wanted in L.A., and we called Ricky and he wasn't doing anything. And he came out and played fiddle on it. We were standing in the control room listening back to it and he said, 'You know, if I ever get a record deal, I think I'll do that song.' He said, 'I like that.'"

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