Watch LeAnn Rimes Perform Vulnerable Piano Ballad ‘Mother’
LeAnn Rimes displayed the full command of her voice’s emotive power in a stripped-down version of “Mother.” Originally released on February’s Remnants, her 16th studio album and first with RCA-UK, the live version was released via a YouTube fan channel earlier this week.
Told from the perspective of a daughter, Rimes’ “Mother” attempts to both reconcile a long-strained relationship and forgive the faults of a matriarch “made of broken pieces.” “I know you did the best you could, the best you can / Forgive me now, I understand,” she sings in the chorus. Ditching the string arrangements from the studio version, Rimes’ voice explores the emotional range of the song while not overpowering the sparse piano accompaniment.
Rimes frequently refers to the risk and openness apparent on her latest album, her first non-Christmas record since the somewhat disappointing showing by 2013’s Spitfire: “It’s a very healing record,” she told Rolling Stone Country in December. “That’s really what I hope people get out of it, is some sense of healing. I’m not attacking anything; it’s from a settled point of view. And, yes, it is vulnerable. I’m scared to death.”
Rimes tours the East Coast and Midwest in April and May before headlining New York City’s PrideFest street fair on June 25th.