Where've You Been

"Where've You Been" was written by Jon Vezner and Don Henry and produced by Allen Reynolds, released on November 25, 1989 on Mercury as the third single from Willow in the Wind, with "I'll Take Care of You" on the B-side. The players include Edgar Meyer on upright bass, John Mock on acoustic guitar, Dave Pomeroy on bass guitar and Matt Rollings on piano. It is a story of two lovers, Edwin and Claire; Claire says the title phrase in three scenes, early in the relationship, when he comes home late, and in old age when she has lost memory of her family and is near death. Vezner says the pair are based on his grandparents, and Country Universe describes a true story, both grandparents in hospital and the grandmother having stopped speaking.

It reached number 10 on the country chart, 13 in Canada, 25 on Adult Contemporary, and 55 on the 1990 year-end country chart. Mattea won the Grammy for best female country vocal performance, and Vezner and Henry the Grammy for best country song, with the CMA song of the year listed under 1990; the year attributions and some songwriter-bio claims about a sweep of awards are inconsistent across sources. Country Universe's Kevin John Coyne praised its restraint, no bombast, no cheap appeals for sentiment or manipulative vocals, and the perfect illustration of what country music can be, though another commenter called it overrated. Setlist.fm counts it in 34 of her setlists, her fourth most played song, and a live version of 3:56 appears on a Big Bang Concert Series listing. She played it on Mountain Stage, her 15th appearance, recorded in Grand Marais, Minnesota. No video, covers or samples were found, and the version of our upload was not examined.