Reba McEntire has never been shy about her favorite kind of song. When she shared her newest single on September 25, 2026, she summed it up in one short line: “You know I love a sad song.”
The song is “Could Have Been Raining,” and it may be the most Reba thing she has released in years. It’s a slow heartbreak ballad about a love that’s over and the memories that refuse to leave. The way she chose to release it says just as much about her as the song does.
The Song and the People Behind It
“Could Have Been Raining” was written by Dave Barnes, Rachel Wammack and Benjamin West. Country fans may know Barnes’s name without realizing it: he wrote “God Gave Me You,” the song Blake Shelton took to number one in 2011, which earned Barnes a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song. Wammack is a singer-songwriter from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a town with a long history of soulful records, and critics have praised her powerful, emotional voice.
Reba produced the track herself, alongside veteran Nashville producer Buddy Cannon. It came out on MCA as the title track of a five-song EP.
A Capsule Every Month for 50 Years
This release is part of something bigger. Reba is celebrating 50 years of making music, and instead of one big anniversary album she has been releasing a “music capsule” every month since April. Each capsule pairs a brand-new recording with older songs from her catalog, chosen around one theme.
The first capsule, One Night in Tulsa, arrived on April 17 and was built around her Oklahoma roots. She sang its new title track for the first time on April 9 at Reba’s Place, her restaurant and venue in Atoka, Oklahoma. Then came Hurt Like That, Ain’t Gonna Keep It Waitin’, Ring Ring, and Tourist with Brandy Clark. “Could Have Been Raining” is capsule number six.
The 50-year milestone goes back to a rodeo arena. In 1974, a young Reba sang the national anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. Country singer Red Steagall heard her and helped her get to Nashville. She signed with Mercury Records in late 1975, and her first single came out in 1976.
Five Songs, One Storm
For this capsule, the theme is rain. Next to the new song, Reba placed four older recordings, and together they read almost like a weather report of her whole career.
“Rain Fallin'” (1979)
This one reaches all the way back to Out of a Dream, her second album, released in August 1979 when she was 24. Written by Charlie Black, it comes from the years before the big hits, when she was still finding her voice in Nashville.
“It Always Rains on Saturday” (1989)
From the Sweet Sixteen album, this song carries an extra personal touch: Reba co-wrote it with Kendal Franceschi and Quentin Powers. By 1989 she was one of the biggest stars in country music, and she was still writing about gray skies.
“Storm in a Shot Glass” (2019)
Written by Mary Browder, Will Robinson and Leslie Satcher, this song comes from Stronger Than the Truth, the 2019 album that saw Reba return to a traditional country sound.
“I Can’t” (2024)
The most recent of the four, “I Can’t” was written by Victoria Banks, Tania Hancheroff and Tia Sillers. Sillers is also a co-writer of “I Hope You Dance,” one of the most beloved country songs of the last 25 years.
Put those years side by side: 1979, 1989, 2019, 2024 and now 2026. Forty-seven years separate the first rain song from the newest one, and the storm sounds the same.
Why the Sad Songs Still Work
Rain has always been one of country music’s favorite ways to talk about heartbreak. It fits the feeling: quiet, gray, and hard to get out from under. Few singers have lived inside that feeling as convincingly as Reba. Her voice can hold a note of hurt without ever sounding like she’s giving up, and that is why her ballads still land with listeners who have followed her for decades.
She is also busier than ever. Alongside the monthly capsules, the third season of her NBC sitcom Happy’s Place is set to premiere this fall. At a point in her career when she could easily coast on the hits, she is still recording new heartbreak songs and still choosing to set them beside the ones she sang at 24.
Fifty years in, it’s still raining in Reba McEntire’s songs. And her fans are still listening.