Bittersweet Woe
My vocabulary of Country Western music is limited, but favorite songs of Dolly and Emmylou come to mind while listening to the short and bittersweet Nashville-style song "Golden Tears," from Marlboro NY's Penny D. "If all my tears were gold, I'd be as wealthy as can be/ the more you make me cry, the richer I'd be/ I'd be the richest woman in the Western Hemisphere/ if only I were crying golden tears," rings out the simple refrain of the song, accompanied by a sweet slide guitar that mimics Penny D's clear, lonesome alto voice. The same slide guitar takes a beautiful solo before we hear these words a final time; a short and simple glimpse into the inside of a sad and broken relationship. Rather than wondering what this woman's man did to hurt her so much, we simply hear these minimalistic lyrics, sympathize, and possibly empathize with her universal story of heartbreak.