Emmylou Harris on Jude
Johnstone/Sonic Magazine
"A few years ago a friend gave me an Ipod and it
turned out to be filled with music she wanted me to hear. I love to just turn on
'shuffle' and let myself be surprised by new, often unfamiliar, songs. That's
how I came to find 'Hold On', that I recorded on my new album ('All I Intended
To Be'). It turned up just before I fell asleep, with my earphones plugged
in!" "It's written by a woman named Jude Johnstone, who has been writing songs for at least (thirty) years. They have been recorded by among others Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt and Johnny Cash, but I didn't know that when 'Hold On' came to me in the night. I suddenly became wide-awake when her words about the family, and how it matters in hard times, were pouring through me." 'Once you where a little boy workin' on a great big plan You threw away the simple joys and now you've got to be a man A battle's raging in your head you wish you didn't have to fight Just hold on to my hand instead another day goes by tonight' Emmylou instantly connected to the words and the feeling of them with her own life. "A good friend of mine had just lost her child. A boy I had known since he was little, a wonderful boy, but he had made a real mess of things and tragically decided to take his life. I immediately associated Jude's lyrics with the sad event." But Emmylou have also discovered other dimensions of the song. "When I listened to it more, I felt that the questions and the advises can be turned to yourself as well, in times when your 'perfect life' in one way or another is suddenly and dramatically changed. How important it is to have parents and friends that support us, when we make mistakes or when troubles occur in our lives. And that they can help us back." - Emmylou Harris interviewed in London by Lennart Persson |
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