“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.”
Introduction
Have you ever caught yourself saying, “Someone should really do something about that”? I know I have—whether it’s about litter in the park, a neighbor in need, or some injustice in the news. It’s that moment when we recognize a problem but mentally assign the responsibility to fix it to some nameless “someone” else. That’s exactly the mindset Rory Feek challenges in his thought-provoking song “Someone Is Me.”
When I first heard this song from Feek’s 2021 album “Gentle Man,” it stopped me in my tracks. There’s something about the way he delivers these lyrics that feels like a gentle but firm hand on your shoulder, turning you to face a mirror you’ve been avoiding.
The song opens with vivid, relatable imagery: “There’s aluminum cans and cigarette butts lining the sides of the street. The baseball field in the county park is buried in a blanket of weeds.” We’ve all seen these small signs of community neglect, the kind that make us shake our heads and think, “This place is going downhill.” Feek continues painting this picture, mentioning graffiti on an overpass and concluding, “Driving around, it’s easy to see this town’s going downhill fast.”
What follows is the chorus that forms the heart of the song: “Somebody should do something about it. How hard could it be? Somebody should do something about it. Maybe that someone is me.”
That last line is where the magic happens—the moment of personal accountability that transforms the song from observation to revelation.
In the second verse, Feek shifts to more interpersonal observations: a door not held open, stares when someone says grace, customers stiffing a waitress on a tip. These aren’t just random examples—they’re the small daily discourtesies that, when accumulated, create the fabric of a community that’s losing its way. The genius of the song is how it connects these seemingly minor incidents to the larger theme of social responsibility.
What makes “Someone Is Me” particularly powerful is that it doesn’t preach from a position of moral superiority. Feek includes himself in this awakening. When he sings, “I don’t expect this world to be heaven, but it sure could be better. I could sit around complainin’ or stand around waitin’, but I might be waiting forever,” you can hear the personal conviction in his voice. This isn’t someone wagging a finger at society—it’s a man looking inward and deciding to be the change he wants to see.
The live performance at Hardison Mill Homestead Hall in Columbia, Tennessee, which you can find on YouTube, adds another dimension to the song. Feek’s gentle delivery, accompanied by simple acoustic instrumentation, creates an intimate atmosphere that makes the message feel like a personal conversation rather than a lecture. When the female vocalist joins in during the final chorus, it suggests that this realization—that “someone” is actually “me”—is spreading, creating a community of individuals taking responsibility.
For those familiar with Rory Feek’s story, this song takes on additional layers of meaning. After losing his wife Joey to cancer in 2016, Feek has continued to make music and raise their daughter Indiana as a single father. He knows something about stepping up when life demands it, about not waiting for someone else to fix what’s broken.
“Someone Is Me” isn’t just a song—it’s an invitation to shift our perspective from passive observation to active participation in making our world better. It reminds us that meaningful change doesn’t require grand gestures or special abilities. It simply requires the willingness to be the “someone” who does something.
The next time you find yourself thinking “somebody should do something about that,” remember Rory Feek’s gentle reminder: maybe that somebody is you. Maybe that somebody is me.