Rodney Atkins’ Shares His Hope for ‘A Little Good News’
"We sure could use a little good news today."
Rodney Atkins leans on the wisdom of the past in a new cover of “A Little Good News,” reviving an Anne Murray classic for a new era of challenges.
A Grammy winning song in 1983, the heartfelt country ode was always a favorite of Atkins’, and with his new cover he’s updated the hit for a unique moment in history. As the world struggles with a global pandemic and the U.S. comes to terms with a political divide so huge it led to protestors ransacking their own national capitol, Atkins strums with a quiet and composed country sound. Meanwhile, Atkins’ warm vocal presence finds him wishing for the day when things just go right, and a simple music video mixing news footage of disasters and division with a woodsy performance of the song.
“As a kid, I remember loving this song,” Atkins explains.” I actually remember thinking it sounded ‘tough.’ In March of 2020 the world started getting more and more bizarre. This song began to haunt me with conviction. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I just really wanted folks to hear it say ‘that this world has gone crazy before and we got through it and we will get through it again.’ I decided to start recording it on my own at home. I kept working and working on it until we all felt really great about it. This song means so much to me that it was definitely worth all of the work to get it right. My biggest hope for this song is that it can really lift some folks up, and remind us that it’s all going to be okay.”
“Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town / Nobody OD’d, nobody burned a single building down / Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain / We sure could use a little good news today,” goes the timely chorus hook.
Rodney Atkins broke out in 2006 with the Platinum certified two pack of “If You’re Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)” and “Watching You.” He last hit Number One with 2011’s “Take a Back Road,” with recent singles including “Thank God for You” and “Caught Up In the Country” (featuring the Fisk Jubilee Singers).
