I'm Already There (song)

"I'm Already There"
Single by Lonestar
from the album I'm Already There
B-side	"Tell Her"
Released	March 26, 2001 (2001-03-26)
Format	CD Single, 7" 45 RPM
Genre	Country pop, adult contemporary
Length	4:13
Label	BNA 69083
Songwriter(s)	Gary Baker Frank J. Myers Richie McDonald
Producer(s)	Dann Huff
Lonestar singles chronology
"Tell Her" (2000) "I'm Already There" (2001) "With Me" (2001)
"Tell Her" (2000) "I'm Already There" (2001) "With Me" (2001)
Alternative cover
European Single Cover

"I'm Already There" is a song recorded by American country music band Lonestar, written by lead singer Richie McDonald along with Gary Baker and Frank J. Myers. It was released in March 2001 as the lead-off single to their fourth studio album of the same name. It spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The song was the band's seventh Number One.^[1]

Content

The song's narrator is a man who is on the road, and the lyric explains how he feels and how his family is responding to his absence. This also explains how much the man loves his family, and how much they mean to him. He then says that he will always be there for them in spirit, even though he is separated from them physically. The song became associated with the September 11 attacks along with family members being deployed and returning from deployment, and has been heard many times on Good Morning America.

On their 2003 greatest-hits package From There to Here: Greatest Hits, Lonestar included a "Message from Home" version which included dubbed-in telephone calls placed by family members of soldiers. This version also lacks the line "And I'll gently kiss your lips / Touch you with my fingertips" from the second verse.

Music video

The music video premiered on CMT on June 7, 2001 and it was directed by Michael Salomon. On April 21, 2003, they released another version of the music video to recast the song as a tribute to the military. This version is the one that is most-played on TV.

Critical reception

Andrea Dresdale of Rolling Stone cited the song as a standout track on the album, calling it "a finely detailed snapshot of everyday life that'll have anyone in a long distance relationship reaching for the Kleenex."^[2]

Chart performance

Year-end charts

Westlife version

A cover of the song is the fourth track on the ninth studio album of Westlife, Back Home. It entered the UK download chart at #74 after "The Westlife Show" in December 2007. The song was not released as a single but peaked at #62 on the Official UK Singles Chart.

In 2008 on Series 5 of X Factor in the United Kingdom, JLS performed the Westlife version and it re-entered the UK charts at #106 and peaked at #63. It entered the Official Irish Singles Chart at #47.

References