"Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart" is a song written by

Bill LaBounty Bill LaBounty is an American musician. He was initially a singer-songwriter in the soft rock genre. As a solo artist, LaBounty recorded six studio albums, including four on Curb/Warner Bros. Records. His first charting single, " This Night Won't ...

and Rick Chudacoff, 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, ...

band Shenandoah with a guest vocal from bluegrass singer

Alison Krauss Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...

. It was released in November 1994 as the first single from Shenandoah's album ''

In the Vicinity of the Heart ''In the Vicinity of the Heart'' is the sixth studio album by the American country music band Shenandoah. Their only full studio album for Liberty Records, it was released in November 1994 (see 1994 in country music). It is also the final studio a ...

'', its only release for

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revival ...

. The song was a Top Ten country hit in 1995, winning a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

and a

Country Music Association The Country Music Association (CMA) was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre. The objectives of the organization are to guide and enha ...

award for both acts.

History

In August 1994, Shenandoah left its previous label,

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

for

, which at the time was the

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

division of

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

. RCA gave Liberty the

master recording Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via met ...

s of an album that the band was in the process of recording at the time, and the label added "Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart" to make the album meet its preferred album format. That album was released in November 1994 as ''In the Vicinity of the Heart,'' with the title track as the first single release from it. The track's

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

, " Darned If I Don't (Danged If I Do)," was later released in early 1995 as the second single from the album.

Critical reception

Jim Ridley of ''New Country'' magazine cited "Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart" as a standout on the album, describing Krauss' vocal as "cut

ing Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...

through the slick arrangement like sunlight through fog." David Zimmerman of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' wrote that the song "catapaulted raussonto country radio," and

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

writer Jim Patterson said that the song's success helped to boost sales of her independent album ''Now That I've Found You''. The song won Shenandoah and Krauss two awards in 1995: the

's Vocal Event of the Year and the

Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals The Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to quality country music collaborations for artists who do ...

. B-side "Darned If I Don't" received a nomination for

Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal The Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded from 1970 to 2011. The award has had several minor name changes: * In 1970 the award was known as Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group * From 1971 to 19 ...

at the Grammy Awards that same year.

Chart performance

"Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart" spent 20 weeks on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now

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 ...

) charts, debuting on the chart week of December 3, 1994 and peaking at number 7 in early 1995. It reached the same peak on the Canadian ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks charts.

Year-end charts

References

{{CMA Musical Event of the Year 1994 singles 1994 songs Alison Krauss songs Shenandoah (band) songs Songs written by Bill LaBounty Song recordings produced by Don Cook Music videos directed by Steven Goldmann Liberty Records singles Vocal collaborations