Born in 1986 in Georgia, USA, Brent Cobb is an American singer and songwriter specialized in Country and Americana music. His first album No Place Left to Leave released in 2006 was the beginning of his career but it’s with his second album Shine on Rainy Day in 2016 he started to become successful. This album including the eponymous single “Shine on Rainy Day” or “Diggin’ Holes” reached the number 17 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and Cobb received a 2018 Grammy Award nomination as Best Americana Album.
But today, we’ll talk about his last album Keep ‘Em on They Toes released in 2020 in which we can listen to This Side of The River, a poetic metaphor of two possible ways of life...
The first verse depicts the most basic schedule of life, a side of a river that seems pretty idyllic.
“ The forest is clear, trees disappear ”, “ The bank is half green grass...”. The setting looks peaceful and would even remind a Monet’s painting. However, the following predicts a quite different perception. Indeed, “ The bank is half green grass...and muddy ”which means that what looks beautiful and flawless can actually be treacherous. This is emphasized with the following verse “ If you wanna get your feet wet, you gotta watch your step ”. There are others sentences such as “ Swimming can be cold so bring a long cane pole “ that warns the listener about the reality of life. The verse is concluded with this sentence “ Even the catfish say, the chicken liver , is a better bite on this side of the river ”. It’s seems to represent all the people that give you advices but actually avoid you to try new things, preventing you to escape from the routine.
The chorus brings a new angle :” the other side ”. The author seems to have discovered that another way of life exists and could be alternative to the first option. This “ overflowing stream ” appears to be this stack of uncertainties and doubts that avoid us to get into new projects. Throughout the chorus, he discovers this other side (“ Over there it could be nice ”) and think about joining it before finally knowing “ where I’d reside ” after the blues flooded through his mind, making him challenge his perception of his own life. This sentence can be understood different ways : we can think he finally realized where his place really was which means in a world without illusions, in the side he knows and he tamed. Or we can also think that now, he understood he should join the other side to leave this boring and repetitive life.
The second verse is pretty similar to the first one. On one hand, this side is where he “ grew up and the rest of [his] family ” and he doesn’t know “ no better than this ”. Moreover, he likes this place so why would he leave it ? Nevertheless, he seems to be driven by something and he understood that “ Where the risk is low, the water is high ”. This verse may mean that it’s when we take the less of risks that the real danger happens. Indeed, a life with no risks is a monotonous life where we quickly lose the taste to live. Thus, it’s here that “ the water is high ” and it’s probably the moment in which the author found out where “ [he]’d reside ” : on the other side of the river.
The song ends with the repetition of the first verse with an exception, the last sentence changed into “ Even the catfish say, the chicken liver, Is a bloodier bite, on this side of the river ”.
Thus, the author shows that “ this side of the river” is definitely more dangerous with the use of the superlative “ bloodier ” that obviously mean the danger isn’t where we think it really is...
If you loved this song, we recommend you another Brent Cobb’s song in the same album, Sometimes I’m a Clown.
