Reason To Believe: Joe Scarborough Commemorates 9/11 With Country Western Song

“It’s critical that we remember the heroes of 9/11 and those who are still fighting in an endless war,” Joe Scarborough tells the Huffington Post of “Reason To Believe,” his new vaguely anti-war 9/11 tribute song. Released by Sony Records in collaboration with JAM, Scarborough and his Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski‘s production company, it’s as mawkish as country songs wont be, but really not so bad.

The MSNBC Morning Joe host doesn’t show up in the video, which goes pretty heavy on the Americana and 9/11 imagery, but his voice is familiar. “In the flash of an hour / Watching dreams fall from towers / All I once knew came tumbling down,” he sings. Beginning on the morning of September 11, “bowed in strangers caress,” the song moves through the ten years past, telling the story of a woman whose husband was lost in the towers and whose son has since grown and deployed. In the end, he asks, “in an endless war tell me / please how many more?”

We don’t usually expect musical prowess from our news anchors, and so we admit we were a bit surprised to find that Scarborough’s 9/11 tribute would come in tune. It’s a little corny, sure, but that’s just how most country songs like this are. Scarborough sounds comfortable singing (he used to be in a band, you know), and as a tribute, it’s pretty hopeful: “At the end of the hour / When I’m drained of all power / I still find the reason to believe.” Who are we to judge.

For those interested, the song is available for download on iTunes.

(h/t The Awl)