Song of the Week: Love Doesn't Live Here by Bryan Cole

As you might guess from the title, "Love Doesn't Live Here," by Bryan Cole is not our usual weekend party song. But it is a highly polished power ballad that reminds me of early Tim McGraw or Vince Gill. Bryan's first CD, Wide Open Road, earned a lot of attention from industry insiders like Cashbox and Music Row and this song looks to continue that trend. With melodic guitars and background vocals in support, Bryan sings about that most Country of topics, the broken heart. But in a twist on the familiar theme, in "Love Doesn't Live Here," it's the woman who ends up on the wrong side of the locked door. Singing,"sometimes the distance makes you stronger, and other times it can make you fall apart," Bryan points out that in love you don't always get a second chance. At one point or other in a relationship many of us (not me mind you, but many) have heard the line, "I just need a little space." Well Bryan gives that space, and lot more, as he makes clear that once you leave there's no coming back. So as in many a Country song before, it is Bryan's on again off again love who learns "you don't know what love is 'til it breaks your heart." It's a hard lesson to learn, but where would Country music be without it.