'Hello Shitty Day' by Jake Worthington & Miranda Lambert – Lyrics & Meaning

Some may know him from his stint on NBC's The Voice, others from his growing list of collaborations with the likes of Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn, Lauren Watkins, Jade Eagleson and more, but the truth of the matter is, once you've heard Jake Worthington, you'll never forget him.

Bursting onto the scene in April of 2023 with his self-titled debut, the reigning Texas Country Music Association Male Artist of the Year has built his brand on a rock solid foundation of classic, Texas-centered country.

Technically classified under the "neotraditional" umbrella – which also features revered artists such as Zach Top, Midland, Randall King and others – Worthington lives and breathes the weathered storytelling and organic instrumentation of the genre's heyday.

With his first new release since his debut record, Worthington makes a splash alongside country superstar Miranda Lambert with their newly-minted collaboration, 'Hello Shitty Day,' chronicling the all too relatable feeling of accepting the lows and embracing the less than wonderful moments in life.

Kicking off with the spine-tingling tickle of ivories, Worthington invites us in to a classic Texas dance hall as his rich vocals carry a tune.

Written by Lambert alongside Dean Dillon, Jessie Jo Dillon and Jesse Frasure, the powerhouse pairing of Texas talents find them opining on their bad luck, as their harmonies spin and dip in perfect time around a dusty ballroom floor on the classic country waltz.

Checking all of the right boxes – a piano, pedal steel, fiddle, steady drum beat and a dependable acoustic guitar – everything on 'Hello Shitty Day' combines to form a nostalgic ballad that heralds listeners back to the country offerings of decades gone by.

Worthington's vocals climb up and down the full scale of his register throughout the four and a half minute song, allowing the listener to sit in the melancholy feelings shared in its prose.

"Hello shitty day (hello, hello)
Glad you came my way
Brought all this pain and all of this rain
Washed my joy away
I was doin’ just fine
In this world of mine
Now the skies are all gray and all I can say is
Hello shitty day"

Welcoming in the unavoidable bad day, Worthington offers what feels like honest regards, while also balancing a level of sarcasm. While it's obvious that he doesn't actually share joy for the bad day's arrival and the stripping away of the good things he had coming, it's a compelling delivery that we can all find validation in.

Explaining that prior to the shitty day's arrival he was doing fine going about his life, the lyrics are pretty self-explanatory, as his sunny day has turned to gray.

"Cosmic sympathy
Finally caught up with me
Glad to know it’s not just rainin’ in my heart
My sweet ole misery
Needed some lowdown company
Like a hole in my head now here we are"

Whether by cosmic or divine intervention, Worthington explains that you can't always outrun the bad days... in the end they'll always catch up to you eventually.

It's in this verse that we come to understand that perhaps our protagonist wasn't having the best day in the first place. Noting that it was "rainin' in [his] heart," it would seem that he was already feeling a bit down in the dumps, and now the day just mirrors that.

After all, sometimes you just need a gray, cloudy day for an excuse to show that you're feeling blue.

"Whiskey retrograde
Got me in a bar room haze
Wishin’ on unlucky stars tonight
Melancholy blue play me a fifty-two
Let that sad ole jukebox do me right"

The shitty day has led Worthington to a bar where he's been drowning his sorrows away, one whiskey at a time. Putting on an old sad song to match his mood, he lets the juke box carry him away through the rest of his down day.

"Hello shitty day (hello, hello)
Glad you came my way
Brought all this pain and all of this rain
Washed my joy away
I was doin’ just fine
In this world of mine
Now the skies are all gray and all I can say is
Hello shitty day"

As noted earlier, Worthington didn't have a hand in writing 'Hello Shitty Day.' In fact, if you ask him, it's almost as if the country waltz landed in his lap by fate.

"That was a song that Miranda had sent to me through a text message," Worthington explains to Holler. "They sent me the song and, of course, I thought highly of it. I felt like, not only would I be willing to sing ‘Hello Shitty Day,’ but I might have woken up a few times saying it."

Explaining that it's relatability factor was a strong reason for wanting to cut it (as well as it coming from one of the genre's biggest hitmakers), he adds: "Really and truly, the writers that are on it are some of the best songwriters that country music's ever had to lean on. I'm grateful that they gave me an opportunity to sing their song," Worthington adds. "Dean Dillon's one of the best damn songwriters and anchors of our time, but he’s a phenomenal singer as well. I just tried my best at walking that melody."

While Worthington has had plenty of time in the studio with other artists during his short but mighty career thus far, he notes that working with Lambert was "an absolute dream come true. It was one thing to get to cut it, but getting her to sing her tail off on it was a whole other ball game. I got to watch her walk in and effortlessly blow everybody's mind. She's one of the best, if not the best singer, I've ever sat in a room with."

He continued: "Singing with Miranda, it felt like I knew her my whole life. I feel like I know what part of the world she comes from and we share the same passion for a song and country music. When you sing with her, she kind of tells you what to sing without saying anything. To experience that, I just hope I get to do it over and over and over again!"

Hello shitty day (hello, hello)
Glad you came my way
Brought all this pain and all of this rain
Washed my joy away
I was doin’ just fine
In this world of mine
Now the skies are all gray and all I can say is
Hello shitty day

Cosmic sympathy
Finally caught up with me
Glad to know it’s not just rainin’ in my heart
My sweet ole misery
Needed some lowdown company
Like a hole in my head now here we are

Hello shitty day (hello, hello)
Glad you came my way
Brought all this pain and all of this rain
Washed my joy away
I was doin’ just fine
In this world of mine
Now the skies are all gray and all I can say is
Hello shitty day

Whiskey retrograde
Got me in a bar room haze
Wishin’ on unlucky stars tonight
Melancholy blue play me a fifty-two
Let that sad ole jukebox do me right

Hello shitty day (hello, hello)
Glad you came my way
Brought all this pain and all of this rain
Washed my joy away
I was doin’ just fine
In this world of mine
Now the skies are all gray and all I can say is
Hello shitty day

If you see a fella in a storm with no umbrella
Just light his cigarette and walk away

--

For more on Jake Worthington, see below: