Rusty Reid’s version of “Oh, What A World” (the song originally written by Kacey Musgraves, Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk and released by Musgraves in 2018) is a very personal take on the song. It forms the closing track on his album *Lone Stardust (Masterworks of Texas Songwriters)* which is an album of course dedicated to the songwriting of Texas. For Reid it’s not just another version of a song he knows, it’s the final statement on an album which he describes as a rollercoaster of emotion. The album takes you through all sorts of feelings and the song is the point at which you stop and reflect. It’s the moment of wonder and spiritual uplift. Reid is from Texas and now lives in the PNW, so he brings his own indie folk, pop, country and rock sensibility to the song and deliberately doesn’t go for the ethereal, otherworldly feel of the original. He’s not trying to recreate the original, he’s creating his own version of it and that’s what gives it its own identity. It still has the sense of wonder at the world we live in, just in a much more grounded way. “Sometimes after all that life has thrown at you, the most powerful ending is just to stop, look around and be reminded of just how wondrous it is to be alive” is the sentiment of the song and that’s what it does for the album. After the rollercoaster of emotions that the album has been, the song offers a different kind of closure. It’s not another heavy emotional ending, it’s an ending that looks outwards and invites you to see the world as something extraordinary. It’s a song that allows you to step back from the emotional journey and see the world as something to be grateful for. It’s a song that allows him to explore his spiritual side and the decision to put it at the end of the album is a very important one. It is the final perspective through which the album is understood. There’s also a certain appropriateness in him choosing a song by Musgraves. Musgraves is an East Texas born songwriter whose work has taken her well beyond the traditional country world. The song links his own Texas roots to a contemporary songwriter and is a song that can be approached in a completely different way by another artist. Rather than just trying to replicate the original, Reid is using his own instincts to create a version that is his own and which is a statement in itself about wonder, gratitude and the need to see the extraordinary in the everyday.
The essence of Reid’s version is all about the balance between the reflective nature of the piece and the more grounded, substantial approach he brings to it. Musgraves’ version is described as being quite airy and surreal in its delivery, whereas Reid’s is very much about giving the song a real, grounded feel while still allowing the guitars and vocals to soar. That’s the key point really because the sense of wonder that the song is all about doesn’t necessarily require it to be a distant, dreamy thing. Reid’s approach is to present that sense of wonder as something that can be very much part of the ordinary human experience. It’s the realisation that you can still be in awe of life, even in the middle of all the mess and complication that life can throw at you. The arrangement brings together a group of musicians whose contributions provide the song with a broad instrumental base. Reid is on lead vocals, Jason Roller on electric guitars, Chris Condon on acoustic guitars, Dane Bryant on keys, Jay Gorman on bass and Robert Blair on drums. The arrangement is broad in its instrumental scope with the acoustic and electric guitars providing different textures to the song, the keys, bass and drums providing the underlying support. Reid is very much conscious of the opportunity for the guitars and the vocals to rise in the performance. He doesn’t see it as a mere afterthought at the end of a double album, he sees it as a proper final musical statement which in itself is a way of completing the emotional arc of the record. There is a real balance in the way the song is performed between the groundedness of the approach and the soaring quality of the vocal and guitar elements. That’s the balance at the heart of the song itself; wonder can be both intimate and overwhelming, it can be rooted in the world we know and yet still reach out to something bigger than our immediate circumstances. Reid’s experience across the indie folk, pop, country and rock spheres provides a natural context for this approach and allows him to draw on all of those traditions without being forced into any one particular genre. It’s also a case of the value of re-imagining a piece of work with a very clear artistic intention. A good cover doesn’t have to be a complete erasure of the original or a replication of every aspect of the original performance. It can be a different way of looking at the same material. Reid’s stated intention of keeping the song very grounded whilst still allowing the guitars and vocals to soar is what establishes the difference between the two versions. The result is a performance which is very much shaped by Reid’s own musical sensibility and by the role that the song plays in *Lone Stardust*. It’s not simply a familiar song at the end of the record. It’s a deliberate decision to finish a substantial collection of music with a song which opens up the emotional perspective rather than closes it down.
There’s a real significance to “Oh, What a World” being the final track on *Lone Stardust (Masterworks of Texas Songwriters)*. Reid points out that it’s the only track on the album that was written by a woman and that he selected it because it fits with his spiritual side. It’s the perfect song to bring the double album to a close as it allows for a moment of reflection after all the emotional turbulence of the previous tracks. It’s a song that allows you to step back and take in the world in a different way. It’s also a very good example of the importance of interpretation in songwriting. Reid isn’t the original writer of the song (that was Musgraves, Tashian and Fitchuk) but he can absolutely connect with it through his own life experience, his own musicality and his own understanding of what the song is doing in the context of the whole project. For an artist who started out in Texas and is now based in Seattle it’s a way of keeping that connection to his roots while presenting the material through a much more contemporary indie-folk-pop-country-rock lens. The final song is a very direct statement of that. It’s a song that allows you to see the world in a new light. The world doesn’t have to be perfect to be extraordinary. Sometimes all we need to do is change the way we see it. That’s the essence of the song. You don’t have to have a perfect world to have an extraordinary one. You don’t have to be free of hardship to be grateful. You just have to be able to see past the hardship and see the beauty and the connection and the sense of purpose that can still exist in the world. That’s what “Oh, What a World” does. It’s a song that gives you that moment of reflection at the end of the album. It’s a moment of release from the rollercoaster that has been the album so far. It’s a moment where you can step away with a different perspective. His version of “Oh, What a World” is therefore a tribute to the songwriters who wrote the original and a personal statement of the attitude he wanted the album to leave the listener with. It’s a song that brings together his respect for songwriting, his Texas roots and his desire to create an interpretation that is his own. Rather than end the album with some kind of dramatic final statement, he ends it with wonder. That’s the lasting impression he wants to leave. That’s the song that will stay with you. It’s a song that reminds you that music can be more than just a record of what you’ve lived through. It can be a way of helping you to see the world in a different light.
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