Josh Gracin – “Telluride”

Songwriters: Brett James & Troy Verges.

In 2005 Josh Gracin delivered what I believe is one of the finest performances from a mainstream male country artist this decade; Gracin’s vocal on “Stay With Me (Brass Bed)” is urgent and vulnerable, oscillating between contemplative, understated verses and a pleading chorus that glows with desire.

Since that single, however, Gracin has released a string of nearly identical, lyrically breakneck up-tempos which possess nary a shred of any such emotion.

I keep waiting for Gracin to again tap into the well from which “Stay With Me” is drawn, but my patience is growing thin.

After an unsuccessful attempt at crooning on the clinically awful “Unbelievable” (Gracin’s worst charting release ever), the Michigan native and American Idol alumnus returns with the fifth single from his sophomore disc We Weren’t Crazy, “Telluride,” which tells the story of passion passing through the filter of youth and independence.

But “Telluride” is essentially a musical carbon copy of Tim McGraw’s 2001 reading of the same song, and Gracin’s version, by comparison, feels shrill and disconnected.

“Telluride” hinges on the fact that the events of the narrator’s time in that city are viewed through the prism of experience; the lovemaking, the being “tangled up by a fire” are just actions, and it is not the actions but the reactions that are emotionally compelling. It is the understanding of what that time meant—independence, sexual development, the passing of youth—that grabs us by the heartstrings, and that is an understanding that can only be fully realized from a distance.

Maybe it is because of the difference in age between the young Gracin and the older McGraw, but Gracin is much less successful at bearing the weight of the song’s core, and so its underlying emotional current runs still. When Gracin sings “Telluride” he sounds like the kid who is snowed in on a mountain with his lover, not a seasoned soul who understands why that time was precious.

And in that he completely misses the point of the song.

Listen: Josh Gracin – “Telluride”