“Sunday in the South”
Shenandoah
Written by Jay Booker
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
August 4, 1989
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
August 19, 1989
Kris Kristofferson passing away has a lot of people listening to “Sunday Morning Coming Down” again, and it’s impossible not to compare “Sunday in the South” to that classic recording right now.
It helps that the song itself acknowledges its predecessor: “Another sacred Sunday’s coming down.” The Shenandoah record became a classic in its own right, but I find it more interesting to listen to it with the context of its influencing hit in mind. It’s like one of those television episodes where we get to see the same scene from the perspective of a different character. This is what was going down on Sunday morning around him when Kristofferson was coming down.
We get beautiful vignettes in barber shops and churches, all delivered so softly that you can easily miss the Confederacy sympathism in the second verse. That section is a bit more revealing now than it seemed 35 years ago, adding an additional layer of complexity to these good, church-going, freedom-loving Southerners whose insular worlds uplift some of their own, while leaving others wandering the streets and wishing they were stoned.
The only thing that keeps it from an A for me is the lack of a discernable melody in the chorus. But aside from needing a stronger hook, it’s hard to fault this record. It’s a slice of Americana that is deeper and more revealing than we usually get from a number one country single.
“Sunday in the South” gets a B+.
Every No. 1 Single of the Eighties
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