You're All I'll Take With Me

Album: Lauren Daigle (2023)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Lauren Daigle channels her grandmother's voice in this song, singing about the loss of her husband of 60 years. "They were inseparable," Daigle said during a set at Nashville's famed The Bluebird Cafe. "They met going to Europe and came back on the Queen Elizabeth."
  • Daigle co-wrote "You're All I'll Take With Me" with Grant Pittman, Daniel Sauls and her producer Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Fiona Apple, Carrie Underwood). "Lyrically, you guys were so kind because I had lost my grandfather," she told her co-writers. "I remember getting in the room and one of y'all said, 'What about loss?'... I just remember that being a sobering thought, but also the anchor point."
  • "You're All I'll Take With Me" is the closing track of Lauren Daigle's self-titled fourth album. Elizondo pushed the singer both vocally and creatively while working on her record. In fact, she didn't realize she was singing certain parts of this song when she heard it played back for the first time.

    "I said to him, 'Oh my gosh, that girl sounds so good. Who did you get to come and do that stuff?' And he's like, 'Lauren, that is you,'" Daigle recalled with a laugh. "That is a testament to how far out of myself this guy got me in the writing in the creation process. He brought me to places that my voice has always longed to go to, and I just didn't know how to get there. And he was the vehicle for that. Sometimes you have to get out of your own way in the process of making things and he shepherded me through that experience."
  • Mike Elizondo also contributed handclaps and played the synthesizer and bass. The other musicians are:

    Emmanuel Echem: trumpet
    Desmond Ng: trombone
    Evan Cobb: saxophone
    Philip Towns: Hammond B3 organ, clavinet, piano. claps
    Nate Smith: drums, percussion, claps
    Max Townsley: electric guitar, claps, background vocals
  • Lauren Daigle is the singer's first album released through Atlantic Records and her first mainstream pop record. The decision to self-title the album nods to the progress she's made. "It's because it took those records to find my voice," Daigle said. "The voice that I can stand on in front of people and say, 'This is what I love! I love this sound.'"

    Daigle added that she was pumped up, drawing inspiration from the live studio musicians. "It's old-school, but it's the place I come so alive," she said.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gentle Giant

Gentle GiantSongwriter Interviews

An interview with Ray and Derek Shulman of the progressive rock band Gentle Giant to discuss counterpoint, polyrhythms, and... Bon Jovi.

Grateful Dead Characters

Grateful Dead CharactersMusic Quiz

Many unusual folks appear in Grateful Dead songs. Can you identify them?

Ramones

RamonesFact or Fiction

A band so baffling, even their names were contrived. Check your score in the Ramones version of Fact or Fiction.

16 Songs With a Heartbeat

16 Songs With a HeartbeatSong Writing

We've heard of artists putting their hearts into their music, but some take it literally.

Julian Lennon

Julian LennonSongwriter Interviews

Julian tells the stories behind his hits "Valotte" and "Too Late for Goodbyes," and fills us in on his many non-musical pursuits. Also: what MTV meant to his career.

Donnie Iris (Ah! Leah!, The Rapper)

Donnie Iris (Ah! Leah!, The Rapper)Songwriter Interviews

Before "Rap" was a form of music, it was something guys did to pick up girls in nightclubs. Donnie talks about "The Rapper" and reveals the identity of Leah.