Shannon LaBrie has lived every word of her new song, “A Thousand Hairline Cracks,” and she’s sharing her brand-new video for the song with Taste of Country readers first in an exclusive premiere.
LaBrie co-wrote the song with Grammy-winning songwriter Tia Sillers, and as she tells ToC, it came about after a therapy session that had centered around the end of a relationship.
“I remember sitting at the table with my co-writer Tia Sillers,” LaBrie recalls. “Tearfully, I was gushing about a therapy session I had just had and how badly I wanted to stop talking about my breakup. I kept (and still to this day) being surprised at how the pain of that relationship kept resurfacing. The good and the bad. I remember saying, ‘When will the pain ever stop? When will I finally be over it?’
“I started fumbling out some chords and started to sing, ‘I will love you till I die, I will learn to wear the ache, and I will always be surprised I didn’t fall hard enough to break,'” she recounts. “Tia looked at me from across the table and said, ‘Let’s write that!’ By the end of the night, we had fully written ‘A Thousand Hairline Cracks,’ and it will forever be therapeutic to sing.”
LaBrie collaborated with Sarah Holbrook for her video for “A Thousand Hairline Cracks,” which they filmed live at East Side Manor in East Nashville. Holbrook plays the violin in the clip, and she also directed the video, for which Aaron Dethrage engineered the musical track.
The two women have more than just music in common. LaBrie grew up on a farm near Lincoln, Neb., and she attributes her start in music to her father’s influence. He died when she was only 13.
“He taught me my first guitar chords and the basic structure of a song,” she recalls. “When he passed away, songwriting became my way of grieving and dealing with the pain.”
Holbrook’s musical career is also a family affair. She and her sisters Hannah, Eva, and Liza first formed a family folk band with their father, Andrew Holbrook, before forming Shel, a sibling group that released several EPs and a full-length debut album. Their music has been featured in a number of high-profile settings, including the soundtrack to the Nicholas Sparks film The Best of Me. Holbrook has also played violin alongside artists including Amos Lee, Michelle Branch, Sarah McLachlan, Emmylou Harris and more.
LaBrie released “A Thousand Hairline Cracks” as a single on Jan. 12. The song is set to appear on her upcoming EP for Moraine Records, which is due in the Summer of 2024.
Keep up with Shannon LaBrie via her official website, or follow her on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.
The 50 Saddest Country Songs of All Time
Each one of the 50 saddest country songs of all time tells a story. Some of those stories are about the pain of heartbreak, while others explore the grief of losing a loved one. Some are about more unconventional subject matter — from infertility to the loss of the beloved family dog — while others tap into the universal subjects of heartbreak and loneliness. Flip through the gallery below for a list of the saddest country songs, ever.