Songs about adoption

I was adopted as a baby, and because of that the subject has always drawn me in fiction. In fact I’ve read some really bad books and watched some bad TV purely because of the topic. One of the things I appreciate most in country music is the range of topics it covers, and I feel inspired to bring together some of the best songs I’ve heard over the years on the subject of adoption.

Actually, one area that seems a bit lacking is songs about the experience of the adopted child. One of the few that does start from that point is Jeff Bates’ autobiographical ‘Rainbow Man’, title track of his 2003 debut album. Although the song goes on to talk about race and the American melting pot, I definitely identify with Jeff’s questioning of his identity.

Moving on to adulthood, I love the story song ‘Cactus In A Coffee Can’, a delicately realized third-person tale of a plane encounter with a young woman who has been reunited with a drug-addict birth mother just before the mother’s death. I first heard it ten years ago from Jerry Kilgore on his Love Trip album on the short-lived Virgin country imprint, and it was beautifully revived by the excellent Melonie Cannon on her most recent album, And The Wheels Turn. You can check both versions out on last.fm. There’s also a version available by Steve Seskin, who co-wrote the song with Allen Shamblin, where his more fragile vocals add a certain vulnerability.

The adoption decision and process are covered as one of three mini-stories in ‘Could You Walk A Mile’, a religious song on the self-titled debut album of 90s act John & Audrey Wiggins (“To give her baby life, she would have to give him up”, Audrey sings). A 14 year old birth mother and older adoptive mother appear in the sweetly sentimental ‘Look What Love Can Do’ from former Curb artist Ruby Lovett:

There are more songs about the post-adoption experience of the birth mother, such as Reba McEntire’s ‘Secret’ (from Room To Breathe) or Michelle Wright’s hit single ‘He Would Be Sixteen’.

My favorite on this theme, though, and probably my favorite adoption song ever, is the tearjerker ‘Jackson’, by Casey Kessel, another a beautifully constructed story of a teenage girl who gives up her child and even ten years later, can’t stop thinking about him, to the (slightly creepy) extent of wandering the streets of the town she believes he lives in looking for him. I’m afraid I can’t find a link, but it’s on her album Ripple In the Water.

The newest song on my list has a different angle, as it focusses on international adoption. That’s Tammy Cochran’s very personal ‘Half The World Away’, which I mentioned when I reviewed her new album recently.

Do you have any special topics you are particularly drawn to hearing songs about (or other artistic treatments)?

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