David Nail Addresses Mental Health in Haunting New Song ‘Oh, Mother’

David Nail recreates a conversation about mental health with his mother in the newly released song “Oh, Mother.” The track also serves as the title of the “Let It Rain” singer’s new EP, due out November 1st.

Nail has been one of the few country performers in recent years to address mental health, openly discussing his struggles with depression in interviews. In “Oh, Mother,” the Missouri native tackles the topic straight on and offers some reassurance to the woman who raised him in the process.

The song creeps in like a sunrise — quiet, restrained cello and keys are the only underpinning for Nail’s powerful vocals at first, but then it slowly builds to something more massive and majestic with a martial drumbeat and fuzzed-out bass guitar. There’s a tinge of optimism in the arrangement, but the lyrics are more ambiguous. Nail takes care to absolve his parents for his struggles, but he doesn’t sound certain about how everything will shake out. “I just had to say, ain’t no one else to blame/If I don’t make it out this storm,” he sings.

“’Oh, Mother’ was a song where the writing came very easily, almost as if it had been stirring inside for some time,” says Nail. “I think it’s always been very important for me to make sure that those closest to me didn’t in some way think they were responsible for any of my mental health issues.“

Oh, Mother will be released November 1st and follows Nail’s 2018 seven-song project with the Well Ravens, Only This and Nothing More.