“Bless the Broken Road” by Randy Whitlock is a beautiful song written for a true blue acoustic ballad about the road not taken. The story is told through the narration of a man named Braylon Edwards, who along with his best friend Mark Whitlock, travels across the country in an old truck and meets every long lost soul who has ever broken up with someone they love. You can feel the gentle sunshine on their faces as they talk about how life was better when they were together, but now it seems like the world is closing in on them and the only place they can feel safe is in the car. But this can’t be the end for them, as a newly formed relationship with a girl named Sarah turns sour when they’re arrested for speeding and Braylon gets suspended from his bike.
Now this is the part when the story takes a turn for the worse. As soon as they get back to their car, Sarah’s boyfriend pops out from behind and starts questioning why they’re so early. Then comes a brutal argument which breaks up the group. The argument brought on by Sarah’s boyfriend has everything to do with whether or not Mark and Braylon should get back together, or if they should just quit and move on. The girls have made this decision before and so should they? This is where “Bless the Broken Road” comes in and I couldn’t wait to read it.
I especially liked the part when Mark said he had been planning this entire song for nearly a year. It seems like he was always destined to meet the girl of his dreams. He wrote this song for her and the angelic intervention was enough to make him realize that he wants to get back together with her. And this is just the first step to a grander plan that is coming true. With the help of Sarah’s song “You Just Smile and Take My Hand”, Mark realizes that he can go back to Sarah and take her to his place, just like she has taken him to hers.
This part is just amazing because Sarah already sings about the break up in “You Just Smile and Take My Hand”, so to see the duo sing about their relationship being broken is priceless. And this song was their first time to discuss the break up and what they want to do to fix it. So many songs have been written about the subject, but none have touched the heart quite like “You Just Smile and Take My Hand”. It’s about as personal as you can get with a song and it’s a great way for them to open up about their problems.
The next part of this song is about how they both know they need each other and they still love each other despite the fact that their relationship has become broken. They both accept the fact that they can’t live without each other and they both agree that they have to fix their relationship. This part might be one of the best written parts in the entire song because it touches on a very important life lesson.
The last verse of this song really sums up everything that went before it. It explains how Mark lost his sense of faith when he was too afraid to trust someone else, and how Sarah kept on trying until she found true love along the broken road. They both wanted to have a family, they both wanted a happy future, but they never saw how their lives would ever be like together. They both realize that they need each other and they both have to do what they have to do in order to make that happen.
