"Already Gone" is a song co-written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

duo

Sugarland Sugarland is an American country music duo founded in Atlanta, Georgia. The duo consists of singer-songwriters Jennifer Nettles (lead vocals) and Kristian Bush (vocals, guitar, mandolin). They were founded in 2002, when Kristen Hall (vocals, gu ...

. It was released in September 2008 as the second single from their album '' Love on the Inside'', which was released on July 29, 2008. Sugarland's members,

Kristian Bush Kristian Merrill Bush (born March 14, 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Bush is one half of the country music duo Sugarland with Jennifer Nettles, and was a member of the folk rock duo Billy Pilgrim (band), Billy Pi ...

and

Jennifer Nettles Jennifer Odessa Nettles (born September 12, 1974) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and record producer. Nettles is the lead vocalist of the duo Sugarland alongside Kristian Bush, and prior to this she fronted the Atlanta-based bands ...

, wrote the song with Bobby Pinson, with whom the duo also co-wrote two of their previous singles, " Want To" and " All I Want to Do".

Content

"Already Gone" is a mid-tempo

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

set in

triple meter Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row ...

, mostly accompanied by

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

, the latter of which is played by Bush. The female narrator describes her life and always passing the good moments by. The song describes the narrator's relationship with her mother and a relationship with her now ex-boyfriend and the final encounter she has with him before moving on. According to ''

Country Weekly ''Country Weekly'' (known as ''Nash Country Weekly'' from 2015–16) was an American magazine about country music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site Nash Country Daily. O ...

'' magazine, Bobby Pinson met Nettles and Bush at their hotel in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

in the middle of their 2007 tour. Nettles and Bush played a melody that "sounds like inson" Nettles added the final verse about her divorce from Todd Van Sickle.

Critical reception

Engine 145 critic Brady Vercher gave the song a "thumbs down" rating. Although said as "a little more substance" than its predecessor "All I Want to Do", he also thought that more emphasis was placed on constructing an interesting melody than creating a narrative that is anything more than average.

Music video

A music video for the song was released on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

a few days before its official release to CMT and

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on September 5, 2008. The video starts off with Nettles and Bush in a bed of old, vintage cars with a sunset in the background. It later captures a young girl in the driver's side of one of those cars, which turns out to be Nettles at the end. Nettles sings on the hood of one car, while Bush plays mandolin on the hood of a different car.

Chart performance

The song debuted at #47 on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart the week of the song's release on September 8, 2008. On the chart week of January 17, 2009, it became the duo's fourth Number One song in the U.S..

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 2000s ballads 2008 singles 2008 songs Sugarland songs Songs written by Jennifer Nettles Songs written by Kristian Bush Songs written by Bobby Pinson Music videos directed by Shaun Silva Country ballads Song recordings produced by Byron Gallimore Mercury Records singles