Lee Brice has released the song from 'Hard 2 Love' that his fans have been begging to hear on the radio. 'I Drive Your Truck' is the singer-songwriter's most emotional lyric to date, and one that will leave more than a few grown men dabbing their eyes.

Oddly, Brice didn't write the song. Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington and Jimmy Yeary penned the lyric after hearing an interview with a family who'd lost their 18-year-old son in the war. The mother said she coped by driving his truck.

To deliver an impactful performance however, Brice had to internalize the story. He said he began thinking of his granddaddy the first time he heard the demo and lost control of his own emotions. You can hear him trying to hold on as he gets through each verse.

"This thing burns gas like crazy / But that's all right / People got their ways of copin' / Oh, and I've got mine," Brice says before going into the type of soaring chorus fans became familiar with in hits like 'Love Like Crazy.'

I drive your truck / I roll every window down / And I burn up / Every back road in this town / I find a field I tear it up / ‘Til all the pain’s a cloud of dust / Yeah sometimes I drive your truck.”

'I Drive Your Truck' captures the little ways one deals with loss. The end of the second verse contains a few words that really spell it out. "And Mama asked me this mornin' / If I'd been by your grave / But that flag of stone / Ain't where I feel you anyway."

There are relatively few songs by men about losing a brother, father or friend, so every time one is done well (Justin Moore's 'If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away' and Dean Brody's 'Brothers' are two examples) it feels like a punch to the gut of a guy on that fragile edge. Brice's strong lyrical performance in 'I Drive Your Truck' should broaden the story's scope, making it a big hit commercially and artistically.

4.5 Stars
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Listen to Lee Brice, 'I Drive Your Truck'

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