Introduction
“Whatcha Gonna Do With That Broken Heart” is a spare, country-tinged ballad recorded and released by Rory Feek as part of the material from his 2021 album project Gentle Man. The live performance — filmed at Hardison Mill’s Homestead Hall in Columbia, Tennessee in 2021 — captures Feek’s intimate, conversational vocal delivery and the close-harmony support of collaborators Ben Isaacs and Mike Rogers, who are credited on the track.
Lyrically the song asks a taut, moral question about how a person responds to loss: whether they will numb, lash out, or look inward and rebuild. Lines that recur across published lyric transcriptions emphasize choices and accountability (“Are you gonna have a good cry… Are you gonna look inside yourself and be honest… What you gonna do with that broken heart”), and they steer the song away from simple wallowing toward an invitation to personal growth.
Placed within the Gentle Man project — Feek’s first full solo release since 2016 and one noted for its reflective, faith-tinged songwriting — the track sits comfortably with material that blends country, Americana, and spiritual concerns. Critics and listeners have singled out the album’s warm production and Feek’s plainspoken narratorial style, which the live Hardison Mill recordings accentuate by favoring acoustic textures and ensemble harmonies.
Because the song exists across streaming services, video platforms, and livestreamed concert archives, the live Hardison Mill version functions both as a document of a particular performance and as an accessible studio-quality track in Feek’s catalog. For listeners approaching Rory Feek’s post-Joey body of work, this song offers a clear example of his turn toward songs that meet heartbreak with steadiness, community, and an eye on forgiveness.
The song’s straightforward question-and-answer framing has made it a favorite in Feek’s intimate concert setlists and communal singalong moments.
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