Songfacts®:

• This track and the rest of the album was produced by Emmylou Harris' ex-husband Brian Ahern, the man behind her classic '70s albums such as Pieces Of the Sky and Elite Hotel. It was their first album together for 25 years. Harris explained to The Sun June 6, 2008: "We'd done one-off projects over the years since our big split-up. This album kinda just happened. He lives five minutes from me and I wanted to stay at home to do it."
• Brian Ahern originally recorded this evocation of the rites of passage, with Nashville singer Karen Brooks in 1982. Emmylou Harris had wanted to cover it for a long time and when she finally did so she told The Sun that it became "the springboard for everything else" on the album.
• All I Intended to Be became Harris' highest-charting solo set on the Top Country Album list in 28 years. "It's #4 placing was Harris' best solo showing since Roses in the Snow spent five weeks at #2 in 1980.