I can't help but feel sorry for Steve Holy. It's like he's the red-headed stepchild of mainstream country music. Blue Moon (relatively) flopped until "Good Morning Beautiful" got tacked onto it. A whopping five singles that never appeared on an album. Four straight duds after he finally got another chart-topper ("Brand New Girlfriend"). And it's not like he was putting out bad songs, either; "Go Home", "Put Your Best Dress On" and and "Come On Rain" are easily some of his best work.

So what am I getting at? In short, "Love Don't Run" had better be a hit. It's a rock-solid song that should easily make up for at least some of the hits he didn't have before. He has never sounded any better than he does here, his voice having a newfound energy and soul that at times sounds a litle bit like James Otto. The lyrics are written in a straightfoward fashion, managing to avoid both cliché and clever turns of phrase when he explains that a real love doesn't run away and hide. It isn't always something that can be coasted through. It isn't disposable. "I know it'd be easier walking away," he sings in the second verse, "But what we got is real / And I wanna save us / Baby, we can do it." There are honesty and emotion both in the lyrics and his delivery. Even if the production does get a little loud at times, it's still a more organic bombast than most, underscoring the emotions instead of beating them over the listener's head.

"Love Don't Run" gets just about everything right. It's original enough to stand out, radio-friendly enough to be a hit, and it should stir all the right emotions for anyone trying to keep a relationship together. It's also the kind of song that I can imagine having a very slow burnout, which just might help it inch its way up into he single digits like "Good Morning Beautiful" did. If he can find any more songs even half as good — or heck, just go back and put the three I mentioned earlier on his third album — then he might finally get some sort of momentum.

You can support Steve Holy by purchasing this single at Amazon | iTunes.