"A Father's Love (The Only Way He Knew How)" is a song written by

Liz Hengber Liz Hengber (born August 22, 1959) is an American songwriter and musician based in Nashville, Tennessee. Hengber was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from New Milford High School in New Milford, New Jersey in 1977. She graduated from th ...

, Thom Shepherd and Steve Williams, originally released by Shepherd in 2007 on his album ''Texas Girls,'' and was re-recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Bucky Covington William Joel "Bucky" Covington III (born November 8, 1977) is an American country music singer. He placed eighth on the 5th season of the Fox Network's talent competition series ''American Idol''. In December 2006, he signed a recording contrac ...

. It was released in March 2010 as his sixth single, and was intended to be included on an album titled ''I'm Alright'', which ultimately went unreleased. It was later released on Covington's second studio album, '' Good Guys'', in 2012.

Content

"A Father's Love (The Only Way He Knew How)" is a country ballad, driven by acoustic guitar and banjo with steel guitar fills. The song's male narrator describes the way his father shows his love for him by doing rather than saying. In the first verse his father spends time making sure his car is tuned up before he leaves for college, and in the second verse he visits his son at his new house and performs maintenance work on it. In the song's bridge, the son visits his father for his sixty-fifth birthday; before he leaves, his father inspects his car once again, showing "a father's love."

Critical reception

Sam Gazdziak of Engine 145 gave the song a thumbs-up, favoring Covington's vocal performance, which he compares to

Marty Raybon Marty Raybon (born December 8, 1959) is an American country music artist. He is known primarily for his role as the lead singer of the country band Shenandoah, a role which he held from 1985 to 1997, until he rejoined the band in 2014. He reco ...

from Shenandoah. Although Gazdziak felt the song was "predictable," he found the song had its "moments that feel genuine." Matt Bjorke of Roughstock spoke favorably of the song, which he felt was "exactly the kind of song and performance that Bucky Covington needed to come out with to help re-establish himself as a mainstream country music artist." With its "soft acoustic, traditional-based melody" and "tender lyrics," Bjorke noted that it "feels like the kind of song that should be a hit in the hands of any singer." Leeann Ward of Country Universe gave the song a B+ rating, describing Covington's vocals as "both believable and emotive" and noting the "pleasant production that does not shy away from the steel guitar."

Chart performance

"A Father's Love (The Only Way He Knew How)" debuted at number 57 on the U.S. ''Billboard''

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart for the week of April 10, 2010. The song entered the Top 40 in its fourth week on the charts and peaked at number 23 in July 2010.

Sales

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

: 31,000Idol Chatter 07-28-2010
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High Valley version

Canadian country music group

High Valley High Valley is a Canadian country music band from Blumenort, Alberta, a small community near the hamlet of La Crete. The group is composed of Brad Rempel (lead vocals) and his supporting band, Dave Myers (bass guitar), Sam Bergeson (vocals), Raym ...

covered the song on their 2010 self-titled album. Their version was released as the album's third single on January 24, 2011, and debuted at number 98 on the

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007, and is currently the standard record chart in Canada; a n ...

for the week of April 16, 2011.

Chart performance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Father's Love The Only Way He Knew How 2010 singles Bucky Covington songs High Valley songs Songs written by Liz Hengber Lyric Street Records singles 2010 songs Songs about fathers