Another country-music morality tale

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. If you want to be doubly humiliated, hitch your plans for the future to a faithless woman.

That morality-tale fate is achingly articulated in country-music singer-songwriter Hunter Thomas Mounce’s latest single, “What She Forgot,” which premieres Feb. 24 on streaming services. To pre-save the song, click here.

The song chronicles a man who makes plans to escape town with the woman of his dreams “on the wings of her old Silverado.” He cashes in his account at the bank and cashes in the life he has today on the promise of a brighter tomorrow somewhere down south.

To his dismay, though, he returns to an empty house, stripped of all its contents, with the woman of his dreams already on the road. “She didn’t even leave me a ‘see-you-later’ beer,” he laments. Standing in the front yard in disbelief, he cries out that he was “supposed to be in her front seat” but “the only thing she forgot is me.”

Just like his previous single, “Alone In The Lone Star,” Hunter’s new tune is high energy, with a lilting lead guitar line running through the song. The lyrics are catchy but also extremely sad, taking the abandoned narrator through three stages of grief: shock, denial and, finally, resignation..

So, how did this song come about? From one short phrase saved to a cell phone.

Hunter relates the story:

“I wrote this song with Nick DeLeo and Reece Phillips, two of my great friends down here in Nashville. It was one of those writing sessions where we all passed ideas around that were in our phones. I hadn't brought anything to the table that particular day, but I remember one of the guys had the idea ‘The only thing she forgot.’

He continued, “We all liked the sound of that, or at least it seemed to be the best thing to start working with that day. We decided on a concept that would involve a woman taking everything, but leaving you behind like a lost dog. I think we even used the words ‘like a lost puppy’ when trying to all get on the same wavelength as to what exactly we wanted to say.

Hunter Thomas Mounce

Nick and Reece have to be two of the best improv guitar players I know. So, while they were figuring out the chords for the song and the signature lick, my wheels were turning on the lyrical front. I immediately thought of the first two lines of the song, ‘We laid it all out, we were gonna head south.’

“We had all agreed it would be cool to write from the perspective of a man who thinks he is in on the master escape plan to ditch town. He did his part. He planned, he closed his bank account, he was dead-set on the future who was this woman. That makes it all the more heartbreaking for him when he suspects she left him.

“I like how we covered three different stages of grief. First, he's in shock standing in the yard, thinking,  ‘How did it come to this?’ Then, he's in denial that she is 100 percent gone, asking, ‘Am I supposed to be in her front seat?’ all the way until the end of the bridge, where he asks, ‘What is a man in my position supposed to do if his forever ticket just punched out?’

The third stage of grief is acceptance: She’s not coming back, and he may be to blame. “In the last chorus,” Hunter says, “he finally accepts that she's gone. He's in a great deal of pain, and he feels guilty. He even asks, ‘Where did I go wrong?’ as if it has to be all his fault.”

Latest from the singing fireman: "What She Forgot" is the latest addition to Hunter's growing discography. His music is available for online streaming and his music videos are on YouTube. Hunter is a firefighter and emergency medical responder with the Hendersonville Fire Department, near Nashville. He was profiled in an earlier post on this blog site. Check out that article to learn more about this talented young man and his music. Or visit his website at huntermounce.com.