Released: 2023
Features: Eric Church
“Man Made A Bar” by Morgan Wallen, featuring Eric Church, is a modern tale, both soulful and slightly rueful, articulating a narrative that spans creation, loneliness, love, heartbreak, and the human solution to it: the creation of a bar. It’s a deep dive into how people seek solace in communal spaces when life gives them the blues—especially in matters of the heart.
The song kicks off with a relatable scene: someone nursing a broken heart at a bar. The barstool isn’t just a piece of furniture here; it’s a prop in the play of heartache, a witness to countless similar tales. The narrator finds camaraderie with the bartender, whose own story of heartbreak and redemption through the bar’s creation back in ’85 underlines a universal truth—pain is timeless, and so is the search for relief. “It’s a story old as time,” sings Wallen, drawing a parallel between personal grief and age-old narratives of suffering and solace.
The chorus is a profound reflection on creation and necessity. The lyrics progress from the creation of the world and mankind to the advent of loneliness, and subsequently, the creation of woman as a companion to man. However, the song sharply notes the oversight in this divine plan: “Oh, but he didn’t make no place to go when she breaks your heart.” This perceived gap in the grand design is humorously and poignantly filled by mankind’s own invention: the bar. The establishment of a bar as a refuge for the broken-hearted is a testament to human ingenuity in seeking comfort and community.
The verses unfold the many faces of those who seek refuge in bars. Some look for a “good time,” some try to drown their sorrows in “half price, half dozen buckets of beer,” and others find themselves there almost as a pilgrimage to mend their fragmented selves. The song doesn’t shy away from the darker side of love and loss, subtly acknowledging that both men and women find themselves on this path of seeking solace, each carrying their tales of love and loss to the bar.
Through its compelling narrative and the collaboration of Wallen and Church, “Man Made A Bar” serves as a microcosm of human experience, touching on lofty themes of creation, solitude, love, and the inevitability of heartbreak, all while celebrating the spaces we’ve created to share our stories. It’s a nod to the fact that while we can’t avoid pain, we can choose to not suffer alone. In this story, the bar stands as a monument to human resilience and the unending quest for connection and healing in the face of life’s invariable challenges.
