“Where are You Now”
Clint Black
Written by Clint Black and Hayden Nicholas
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
September 28 – October 5, 1991
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
September 13, 1991
Clint Black tops the charts with the strongest single from his second album.
The Road to No. 1
After reaching No. 1 with the second single from Put Yourself in My Shoes, “Loving Blind,” Clint Black reached the top ten with the third single, “One More Payment.” The fourth and final single returned Black to the to penthouse for the seventh time.
The No. 1
“Where are You Now” is the strongest of the four hits from Black’s second set, and the only one that reaches the standard of excellence established on his first set, Killin’ Time.
Black sketches a compelling character who is left wondering where the only anchor of his life has gone, but he doesn’t wonder why she’s gone. He’s merciless on himself, cataloging his shortcomings and mourning how he “took for granted you’d be around to pick me up on my way down.”
He’s completely adrift without her, but he knows where to squarely place the blame: “Another fine mess I’ve got into, and if I knew which way to turn, I’d still turn to you. So if everything is said and done, what am I supposed to do?”
One of his finest ballads, and it is the first of three consecutive singles that rank among his best.
The Road From No. 1
Clint Black will top the charts with his next three solo singles, all of them from his excellent third album, The Hard Way. There was a gap between studio albums, so we won’t see Black again until the summer of 1992.
“Where are You Now” gets an A.
Every No. 1 Single of the Nineties
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…listening to his first four albums in a row still is a no-skipping experience. terrific country music including this #1 of his.
Black sounds brilliant. The Whitley and Haggard influenced vocal climbs, swoops, and drops are gorgeous.
I love how being lost and adrift hold this song and “Loving Blind” together thematically. What can be criticized as an unfocused sophomore album might be considered a smart variation on a theme from another perspective. Not a concept album per se, but certainly an emotionally cohesive one.
So many of the songs from “Put Yourself in My Shoes” tap into that vein of emptiness. I am thinking of album cuts of “A Heart Like Mine,” “This Nightlife,” and “The Old Man.”
Blacks’ characteristic tendency toward wordy lyrics also began to emerge. I can see Roger Miller’s influence on his writing.
Needless to say, I love this song.
Yet another excellent ballad from the earlier part of Clint’s career. I’ve always loved it when he dipped into his lower register on the verses, at times reminding me of Randy Travis. Like Peter, I think the dark and moody feel of this song compliments the fellow dark and moody ballad, “Loving Blind,” very well, and like that previous single, the production, instrumentation, vocals, and lyrics all come together perfectly for me. The fiddle and piano are especially used to great effect on the second verse, imo. Also agree with Peter on how much of the material on Put Yourself In My Shoes goes together very well thematically. “A Heart Like Mine” is one of my all time favorite songs of his that was never released as a single.
This was also another early Clint Black song I rediscovered on one of my tapes back in 2000 when I was having a renewed interest in his older music. It was a tape I had recorded around the Fall of 1991, and unfortunately part of it got cut off near the end since it was at the end of the tape. But that was all the more reason for me to want to get the Put Yourself In My Shoes album (besides also really liking “Loving Blind,” of course).
For me, this was also the last single of his to have that “old school” Clint Black sound. While I really like his follow up album to this, for me, there was a noticeable change in the production style and even his vocals. For instance, while he used his lower register much more often on the first two albums, showing a lot of his Haggard influences, his vocals are noticeably higher for much of The Hard Way album, and most all of the following albums.