Johnny Bush – There Stands The Glass

About The Song

“There Stands The Glass” is a classic honky-tonk ballad by Johnny Bush, released in 1972 as a single on RCA Victor, paired with “These Lips Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye” as the B-side, and featured on the album Whiskey River / There Stands The Glass in 1973. Written by Russ Hull, Mary Jean Shurtz, and Audrey Grisham, it was first recorded by Blaine Smith in 1952 and made famous by Webb Pierce’s 1953 No. 1 country hit, which spent 12 weeks atop the Billboard Country chart. Bush’s version reached No. 34 on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and No. 60 in Canada, a testament to his Texas grit. The 2:50 track, with its mournful plea—“There stands the glass / That will ease all my pain”—captures a man drowning heartbreak in whiskey, wondering where his lover is tonight. Bush’s robust, operatic voice, dubbed the “Country Caruso,” infuses it with raw emotion, as Shazam notes its “gut-punch delivery.” He told Austin Chronicle in 2002, “That song’s about hurt so real you can taste it. I sang it like I’d lived it.”

Recorded in August 1972 at RCA Victor Studio in Nashville, the track was produced by Jerry Bradley, with a stellar lineup: Dale Sellers, Ray Edenton, and Harold Bradley on guitars, Weldon Myrick on steel guitar, Bob Moore on bass, Buddy Harman on drums, and fiddles by Johnny Gimble, Buddy Spicher, Ronald Knuth, and Shorty Lavender, plus The Jordanaires on backing vocals, per Discogs. The arrangement’s twangy fiddle and steel guitar amplify the song’s barroom despair, with a D-G-A chord progression and “fill it up to the brim” refrain, per Chordify, making it a dancehall staple. Rate Your Music calls it a “honky-tonk masterpiece,” and AllMusic praises Bush’s ability to “make an old song new with pure Texas soul.” Bush re-recorded it in 2010 for Johnny Bush And The Bandoleros Play The Hits, a nod to its enduring pull.

Johnny Bush, born John Bush Shinn III on February 17, 1935, in Houston, Texas, was a Texas country titan, mentored by Willie Nelson and Ray Price. Starting as a drummer in Price’s Cherokee Cowboys and Nelson’s Record Men, he went solo in 1967 with Nelson’s backing, scoring hits like “You Gave Me a Mountain.” Wikipedia details his vocal struggles with spasmodic dysphonia, diagnosed in 1978, which cost him his RCA deal in 1974, but he regained 70% of his voice by 1985, cementing his comeback. “There Stands The Glass” was a live highlight, performed on No. 1 West in 1987 with Brian Sklar’s Prairie Fire Band and at a 2018 Bluebonnet Youth Ranch benefit in Lockhart, Texas, per YouTube. Covers include Conway Twitty (1966), Wanda Jackson (1968), Loretta Lynn (1981), and Van Morrison (2006), but Bush’s version holds a Texas-sized place, per SecondHandSongs.

The song’s legacy is its raw depiction of heartache, with Rolling Stone ranking it No. 127 on its 2024 list of the 200 Greatest Country Songs, citing Bob Dylan’s praise: “The star of this song is the empty bourbon glass.” It appeared in no major films but thrives on Spotify and in Texas honky-tonks, with fans on Last.fm calling it “a cry-in-your-beer classic.” No controversies surround it—just Bush’s resilience, honored by his 2003 Texas Country Music Hall of Fame induction. Bush, who died October 16, 2020, left a mark with this track, a barstool anthem for the brokenhearted.

Video

Lyric

There stands the glass
That will ease all my pain
That will settle my brain
It’s my first one today

There stands the glass
That will hide all my tears
That will drown all my fears
Brother, I’m on my way

I’m wondering where you are tonight
I’m wondering if you are all right
I wonder if you think of me
In my misery

There stands the glass
Fill it up to the brim
Till my troubles grow dim
It’s my first one today

I’m wondering where you are tonight
I’m wondering if you are all right
I wonder if you think of me
In my misery

There stands the glass
Fill it up to the brim
Till my troubles grow dim
It’s my first one today