“Every Light in the House” Illuminates Trace Adkins’ Soaring Career

If you have been a fan of Trace Adkins since the beginning, there’s probably one song that instantly comes to mind, and that’s his hit single, “Every Light in the House.” 

The song was released in 1996 off Adkins’ debut album, Dreamin’ Out Loud, and later peaked at No. 3 on the chart of Hot Country Singles & Tracks, giving Adkins the first Top 5 single of his career.

Billboard magazine’s Deborah Evans Price said that “Adkins’ deep, powerful voice does justice to the yearning in this lyric about a man who has left the lights on waiting for his lover to return.” Music critic Rick Cohoon of Allmusic also gave the song a favorable review. He called the song a “creative approach to the age-old ‘goodbye, I miss you’ song.” 

Cohoon also commended Adkins’ voice for “communicating pain so well” despite the singer’s stature.

Trace Adkins Played The Broken-Hearted Man In “Every Light In The House”

Written by Kent Robbins, “Every Light in the House” tells the tale of a broken-hearted man who left every light on in his house just in case the woman he loves decides to return home. 

“Every light in the house is on. The backyard’s bright as the crack of dawn. The front walk looks like runway lights. It’s kinda like noon in the dead of night. Every light in the house is on. Just in case you ever do get tired of being gone. Every light in the house is on,” he said. He decided only to start turning them off one by one when he begins getting over her, which he never did until the very end.

“Every Light in the House” also survived the intense ’90s cheesiness of its music video and remained to be a favorite to this day, proving what a solid country song truly it is.

The short clip for this song comes in black-and-white and starts with Adkins sitting at the porch of his house with his dog after the love of his life left home. He heart-wrenchingly said, “It’s just me and you now, boy,” as the music begins. Adkins then got off the porch. Together with some workers, they all started working on a power generator.

The music video went on, and you’ll see Adkins’ character working endlessly around his yard and at his job as he tried to keep himself busy while the woman who left him behind did the same, except that she was in the big city pursuing her modeling career.

Luckily, at the very end of the video, the woman ran back into Adkin’s arms, and the bright lights disappeared into the night. In this case, the sad story got a happy ending.

You can watch it below.