Burke, winner of the 2024 UK Songwriting Contest (Adult Contemporary category) and 2024 SongDoor International (Country category) takes his songwriting to a new high with a beautifully crafted love song about how meeting the right person transforms our lives. Mandolin, acoustic guitar, and slide guitar set an acoustic but modern indie country soundscape. Burke's vocal is Ed Sheeran meets Jason Isbell--sweet and uplifting with just a hint of country twang--the perfect medium to sing show-stopping lines like "Me before you was like climbing a mountain just before the view / Jack London before 'The Call of the Wild' / Mona Lisa before she smiled." Set in an album that has already garnered significant pre-release accolades (including category wins, honorable mentions and finalist placements in song contests), "Me Before You" is a gem among gems.
Lyrics
VERSE 1
Walking around with his head pointed at his shoes
Not hearing the wind that the pines are whispering through
Not knowing today is the last day
The sky will ever seem quite that grey
Looking back, that guy didn’t have a clue
They say there’s a time before the earth had the moon
When we were all just floating in a great big cosmic soup
A time before the lightning strike
When there was just an idea in Franklin’s mind
When there was just the theory, not the proof
PRE-CHORUS
Every story has an exposition
Before it hits the twist that makes the tale
CHORUS
There was something incomplete
About Thelma before Louise
When the Sistine Chapel was white
Van Gogh before his Starry Night
Until that magic arrives
Some things just aren’t finished like
July before June
The sky before blue
Me before you
VERSE 2
Nobody would pay to see “Benny Before Joon”
And I never wanna go back before I knew you
Might as well go back when the whole design
Was a twinkle in the eye of Father Time
‘Cause what is a man without his truth
PRE-CHORUS
Every good beginning has a moment
Right before the writer tips the scale
CHORUS 2
There was something incomplete
About Thelma before Louise
When the Sistine Chapel was white
Van Gogh before his Starry Night
Until that magic arrives
Some things just aren’t finished like
July before June
The sky before blue