Herb,

A lot of good stuff in this. One of your best vocals.
A good classic country production.

As others have noted, there is a lot of high eq to the mix that gives it a "brittleness" that you don't usually do. It lacks the "warmth" that your productions typically have.

Best writing I've heard from you. Good imagery. It would be nice if you smoothed a couple of "bumps".
A bunch of places where there are more syllables than fit comfortably into your melody. Some are easily fixed by eliminating unnecessary words or changing the wording slightly. Tom's suggestion on "growing" is a good one...another example...

"There's tape on the windows and an old weathered sign"
would sing more smoothly as
"Tape on the windows, an old weathered sign"

"for eternity" (drop ""all")

"A padlock is rusting..." could be "A padlock, rusting...hangs on the door"

Substituting "Our small towns" for "The small towns" would make it more personal - involve your audience...

The chorus and third verse are strong (you could drop "those" in front of flat-screens)

Cool that you've hit #1 in Christian Country.

Good job on this.

floyd

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