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Full songs stream on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. Written and performed by Richard Dall.
Country songs for a funeral
If you are reading this you are probably planning something you did not want to plan. Here is what actually works in a room, and songs written for it.
- When the Sky Fell
A country-soul ballad about surviving loss. The one most people use.Song → - Avalanche of Light
Hope arriving after a long dark night. For the end of a service rather than the start.Song → - One More Hill
Resilience and dignity. For a life spent working.Lyrics Song → - Gold Beneath The Scars
For someone who had a hard life and carried it well.Listen → - The Weight I Carry
What the people left behind are holding.Listen → - Mama, I'm Still Here
A promise kept. For a mother or grandmother.Song →
Written to be useful, not to sell you anything. Every song named below is Richard Dall’s own — if you want the famous standards for this, a funeral director or your own search will serve you better than I can, and that is fine.
Three practical things nobody tells you
Read the whole lyric. Plenty of songs with gentle choruses have a verse that will land wrong in a church or a chapel. Read it on paper, all the way through, before you commit.
Keep it to three or four minutes. A room can hold that. Six minutes of silence with music is much longer than it looks on a running order, and the family is standing.
Decide where it goes. A song at the start sets a tone nobody is ready for yet. A song after the eulogy carries what was just said. A song at the end is what people walk out with, and that is the one worth choosing first.
Tempo and arrangement matter more than the words
Slow and sparse works; big and produced usually does not. A single voice with a guitar leaves room for people to feel their own thing. A full arrangement tells them what to feel, and in that room they will resist it.
Also worth knowing
Check with the venue. Some churches have rules about secular music, and some will want the file in advance rather than streamed — a dropped connection in the middle of a service is a thing that happens. Ask for it on a device, offline.
Related: losing your dad · losing your mom · country songs that make you cry
Questions people ask
What country songs are good for a funeral?
From Richard Dall's own catalog: "When the Sky Fell", "Avalanche of Light", "One More Hill", "Gold Beneath The Scars" and "Mama, I'm Still Here". Slow, sparse arrangements generally work better in a room than big produced ones.
How long should a funeral song be?
Three to four minutes. Longer feels much longer than it looks on a running order, especially if the family is standing.
Where in a service should the song go?
A song after the eulogy carries what was just said; a song at the end is what people leave with, which makes it the one to choose first. Opening with music asks the room for something it is not ready to give yet.
Should the song be streamed or played from a file?
From a file on a device, offline, if you can. Streaming during a service depends on a connection that sometimes drops. Many venues also want the audio in advance.