Fresh from the warm reception of “No Place To Go,” the first single from ‘My Blues Pathway‘, Kirk Fletcher releases the follow-up single “Ain’t No Cure For The Downhearted” – another deeply soulful track that wears its passionate heart on its sleeve. Fletcher is one of the most revered blues guitarists in music today who channels for the many varied emotions of the human experience into songs that are both moving and challenging.
“Ain’t No Cure For The Downhearted” is a devastatingly sad portrait of a person seeking fulfillment, or “cure” for their depression, in external things. Fletcher explains, “This song is about people who shift the blame of all the things in their life that they regret. People who judge their life by other people’s success or their so-called happiness.”
The video echoes and expands on these sentiments, showing vignettes of people contemplating their life choices culminating in the scene of an old man walking alone, broken down, his unfulfilled life nearly at an end. It’s a powerful expression of the kind of downheartedness that only the blues can communicate. But there are also subtle traces of hope in Fletcher’s song toward the end as he references one of humanity’s greatest moral leaders (“It was a great man once said he had a dream”) and the video shows scenes of people marching for justice.
Ultimately, Fletcher suggests that the “cure,” if there is one at all, doesn’t come from the outside world but rather, “One must find happiness from within. We must think for ourselves and follow our passions (so long as it doesn’t harm anyone or anything).”
