Gary Allan is one of the few singers in country music who is a pure singer, as opposed to artists who are guitar players first and singers second. While he’s never really received the popular recognition he deserves, Allan’s still had an impressive career and has a solid fan base. The song that really gained him serious acclaim as a first-rate vocalist was the excellent title track of his 1999 album Smoke Rings in the Dark.
Written by Rivers Rutherford and Houston Robert, “Smoke Rings in the Dark” is about the pain of confronting the end of a passion that once burned hot, but is now all but burned out. Rutherford recalls that the inspiration behind the song came out of a real-life situation of his co-writer Robert.
“I tell a story when I perform about Houston coming home late one bitter cold Nashville night to find his wife had taken the baby and moved back to Baton Rouge,” Rutherford says. “He came over to my place, stepped out to smoke, and flipped a cigarette out in the yard, leaving a long spiral of red embers [which led to the idea for the title]. I get real detailed and lonesome telling the story. Houston’s intro to it, on the other hand, is a little pithier: He says ‘Smoke Rings in the Dark’ may have been a hit, but the breakup was more like a ‘Barn Fire at High Noon.’”
Rutherford says that Allan’s producer, Mark Wright, wanted the song for Allan’s upcoming album, but had one caveat when it came to the lyric. “I asked [Wright], ‘What are you looking for?’ He said, ‘Kind of a cross between Chris Isaak and Don Henley.’ Houston and I had just finished the song so I played it for him and his first comment was, ‘Ok, love it, we’re cutting it, but you need to flip the first two verses.’” So the verses were switched, and what had actually been the second verse –
Well I won’t make you tell me
What I’ve come to understand
You’re a certain kind of woman
I’m a different kind of man
I’ve tried to make you love me
You’ve tried to find a spark
Of the flame that burned but somehow turned
To smoke rings in the dark
– became the first verse of the song as we know it.
While the song is a well-written classic that communicates the angst of facing a dying relationship, credit has to be given to Allan’s aching vocal and the great production. Calling it a “beautiful record,” Rutherford recounts another tale: “I’ve got an ex-con friend who told me when he got to ‘easy time’ from ‘hard time’ he got a radio and a private cell,” he says. “First thing he heard was the intro to ‘Smoke Rings,’ that guitar and the long slow rain stick, and as soon as Gary started singing he cried.” Odds are, he probably wasn’t the only one, as this is lyrically one of the most gut-wrenching country songs of the past two decades, with everyone involved knocking it out of the park.
