"It Ain't the Whiskey" is a song written by Greg Barnhill, Jim Daddario and Cole Deggs, and 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, ...

singer

Gary Allan Gary Allan Herzberg (born December 5, 1967) is an American country music singer. Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his country music debut with the release of his single " Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album '' U ...

. It is the third and final single from his 2013 album '' Set You Free''. To date, this is Allan's final top 40 single.

Content

The song is a ballad with a "gnawing guitar solo and steel" that takes place at an

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA is non-professi ...

meeting. In it, the male narrator states that his life problems are not caused by substance abuse, but rather by a lost love.

Critical reception

Billy Dukes of

Taste of Country Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

wrote that "After two uplifting singles, Gary Allan has become the dark, heartbroken and wretched singer his fans have loved for over a decade. ‘It Ain’t the Whiskey’ is his bread and butter, and the singer sounds better than ever on this highlight from the ‘Set You Free’ album." Joseph Hudak of ''

Country Weekly ''Nash Country Weekly'' was an American lifestyle weekly magazine about country artists and their music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site ''Nash Country Daily''. Overvie ...

'' rated it "A", saying that "Yet for all of the intrinsic sadness of the lyrics…and the hypnotic production, the song doesn’t plod or bore. Rather, it captivates."

Music video

The song's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was released in December 2013. It is shot in black-and-white, and alternates between shots of Allan performing the song with his band, and shots of him portraying a character "who has lost love".

Chart performance

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2013 songs 2013 singles Country ballads 2010s ballads MCA Nashville Records singles Gary Allan songs Song recordings produced by Jay Joyce Songs written by Greg Barnhill Music videos directed by TK McKamy MCA Records singles