For Everyone Doing Dry January, Here Are 14 Country Songs About Giving Up Alcohol

How’s everyone holding up?

It’s the first week back at work in the new year for a lot of people, which means a lot of catching up on emails, “circling back,” and trying to figure out what day of the week it actually is. It’s brutal.

Of course some people choose to make their January even worse by deciding to give up alcohol for “dry January,” a tradition that’s really taken off online over the past few years.

A study last year found that as many as a quarter of Americans who drink alcohol take part in dry January and abstain for the month, which is of course part of a larger trend of people who are giving up drinking alcohol altogether. So it’s not really a surprise that dry January has become more and more popular over the past few years.

Now, I’m not participating this year (I actually decided to drink more this January because I realized on New Year’s Eve that my tolerance is pretty much shot and I need to get it up).

But for everybody who is, there are plenty of country songs about giving up alcohol to help you get through the month:

“High Cost of Living” – Jamey Johnson

“My life was just an old routine
Every day the same damn thing
I couldn’t even tell I was alive
I tell you, the high cost of livin’
Ain’t nothing like the cost of livin’ high”

“That’s Why I’m Here” – Kenny Chesney

“Well I ain’t had nothin’ to drink
I knew that’s probably what you’d think
If I’d drop by this time of night
Remember way back when
I promised you I’d drop in
At one of those meetings down at the Y

…

It’s the simple things in life
Like the kids at home and a loving wife
That you miss the most, when you lose control
And everything you love starts to disappear
The Devil takes your hand and says no fear
Have another shot, just one more beer
Yeah I’ve been there
That’s why I’m here”

“One Day At A Time” – American Aquarium

“For years the drinks were just a crutch until the drinks were just too much
I guess it comes with the job: Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ roll
You see songs fulfill a human need to stand back and watch another man bleed
So for a moment, we don’t have to feel sorry for ourselves
And this imaginary confidence became the first line of defense

If you don’t let ’em in, boy, they’ll never let you down
But she broke through and took control, my sweetheart of the rodeo
And for the first time I found somethin’ I couldn’t afford to lose”

“Better Than the Bottle” – Cody Jinks

“We swore like hell we’d never slow down
Money we’d burn when we’d paint the town
Rollin’ like we’d never see tomorrow
We were chasin’ that high, we had time to borrow
We were out of control, like the James-Younger brothers
We were hard on ourselves, we were bad for each other
Some living’s been done, and we pulled back on the throttle
Still a vice or two, but they’re better than the bottle”

“Little Rock” – Collin Raye

“I haven’t had a drink in 19 days
My eyes are clear and bright without that haze
I like the preacher from the Church of Christ
Sorry that I cried when I talked to you last night

I think I’m on a roll here in Little Rock
I’m solid as a stone, baby, wait and see
I’ve got just one small problem here in Little Rock
Without you, baby, I’m not me”

“Wine Into Water” – T. Graham Brown

“Tonight I’m as low as any man can go
I’m down and I can’t fall much farther
And once upon a time you turned the water into wine
Now on my knees I’m turning to you Father
Could you help me turn the wine back into water”

“Flowers” – Chris Young

“You won’t believe how much I’ve changed since you left
It took losing you for me to find myself
Oh I wish that you could see me
Steady hands without the whiskey
You’d be so proud”

“That Wasn’t Jack” – Justin Moore

“I know he’s called you a bunch of times
Tore up from the floor up out of his mind
Saying he’s sorry and asking if he can stop by again
He’s pulled a Hank and got hellbent
Said some things he swore he meant
But I swear this time is different, baby

No, it wasn’t the late night crazy
Two in the morning up calling you, baby
I wasn’t out with my friends in a real drunk crowd
That ain’t at all how it all went down
It wasn’t the whiskey and a country song
That you were hearing from my end of the phone
All that talk I was talking ’bout missing and wanting you back
That was all me, that wasn’t Jack”

“Winning Streak” – Jelly Roll

“The broken glass of a bottle makes a jagged rock bottom
And right now I got two shaky hands, only one way to stop ’em
And I haven’t touched a drop in seven hours, three minutes
Hardly sobered up, already wanna quit quittin’
Sweatin’ in an old church basement, wishin’ I was wasted
I never thought I’d say this
‘Hello, my name’s Jason'”

“Bottle By My Bed” – Jason Boland & the Stragglers

“My life was as empty
As the bottle by my bed
My friends turned into strangers
And I was all but dead
Jesus came and found me there
That day those demons bled
When my life was as empty
As the bottle by my bed”

“Angels and Alcohol” – Alan Jackson

“You can’t change lonely with a bottle of wine
It might ease the heartache for one short easy time
In the end you have to face what’s hiding in your mind
You can’t change lonely with a bottle of wine

You can’t mix angels and alcohol
An angel once loved me, I traded it all
I let the bottle drive my life into a wall
You can’t mix angels, and alcohol”

“I Will Rise” – Benjamin Tod

“Oh, it’s hard to wake from feeling blue
Oh, but I will rise, I will rise
And my hands may shake from lack of booze
Oh, but I will rise, I will rise
And though I’ve fallen out of space and time
Oh, I will rise, I will rise
And I dug my grave with honest lies
Oh, I will rise, I will rise”

“Dear Sobriety” – Pistol Annies

“Dear Sobriety
Please come back to me
I left you high and dry
I’m doomed for good this time
I swore I wouldn’t be
I’m making a fool of me
I need you desperately
Dear Sobriety”

“Nose On the Grindstone” – Tyler Childers

(I know this one isn’t specifically about alcohol, but it’s about sobriety, and it’s too good to leave out).

“Well Daddy, I’ve been tryin’, I just can’t catch a break
There’s too much in this world that I can’t seem to shake
But I remember your words, Lord, they bring me the chills
Keep your nose on the grindstone and out of the pills”

The post For Everyone Doing Dry January, Here Are 14 Country Songs About Giving Up Alcohol first appeared on Whiskey Riff.