His unmistakable voice brings all the joy and longing and despair of the blues tradition to bear on everything from show tunes to country weepers.

Larry Flick, of Billboard magazine reviewed the song favorably, calling it a "a classic-sounding country weeper, dripping in mournful steel guitar."

(There are discs devoted to country weepers, heavy funk, 1970's riff rock, 1990's alt-rock and more.)

"Icy Blue Heart" starts out like a country weeper, but its opening line is typically unconventional: "She came on to him like a slow-moving cold front."

This version was praised by Rolling Stone critic Andy Greene as "fantastic, maybe definitive" in its incarnation as a country weeper.

The current single, "A Little Past Little Rock," is a blue-chip country weeper.

Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song a B+ grade, calling it a "standard country weeper with a mouthful of a title."

At the end there is Lynn Anderson's country weeper, "Cry."

Shelly Fabian of About.com called it a "steel-soaked country weeper".

Pop has always had its downhearted side - torch songs, country weepers - but most performers have tried to cover a wide emotional spectrum, mixing ups and downs.