Terri Lynn Herbert—a lawyer with the Travis County, Texas, attorney general’s office—made plans to marry Dale Watson shortly after they met in April 2000, but those plans were cut short when she died in a car crash that September. Her death threw Watson into a pit of darkness, culminating in a suicide attempt that December. The songwriter climbed back to normality in 2001 and eventually released To Terri with Love, a collection of songs written and recorded in the weeks following her death. Watson made these tracks with no intention of releasing them. Eerily, their purpose seemed not for him to memorialize Terri as much as to connect with her ghost. The songs offer crushing updates on his mental and emotional states. The strain of a buried heart is felt throughout the album. “I Wasn’t There,” “I See My Future," and “These Things We’ll Never Do” are particularly devastating. Watson later said he didn’t think anyone would want to hear songs so painful, but within his sorrow is something immensely powerful. Even within the tradition of despondent country music, there's nothing else quite like this album.