I'll Hold Your Head

Album: Revelation Road (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • The opening lines of Shelby Lynne's "I'll Hold Your Head" depict a common scene from the singer's childhood in Mobile, Alabama.

    Four bald tires on an old Impala
    17 degrees in South Alabama
    Mama needs money and we're late for school
    Picking out the parts of a Bob Wills tune


    The song, which appears on her largely-autobiographical Revelation Road album, was inspired by long car trips to and from school with her mother and sister. She explained the routine in an interview with FaceCulture: "We lived in the country. It was like a 30 minute drive to school everyday. We lived so far in the country the school bus wouldn't go there, so we would drive…so during that time, we sang," she said.
  • Lynne's major influences were singers like Elvis Presley, Bob Wills (as cited in the song), The Everly Brothers, and The Mills Brothers - "harmony type stuff." She says she still searches for music that's as great today. "That never leaves my being, because that's the first music that I heard. I can't shake it, that's like in me."

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