Ellie Holcomb Reveals How a Trip to the Grand Canyon Inspired A New Album

Singer and songwriter Ellie Holcomb took a trip to visit the Grand Canyon for the first time in her life last summer. To say that she was inspired is an understatement. In fact, she was so enamored by the Grand Canyon and the metaphor it depicts that it lingered in her heart for months.

Holcomb describes, "I felt like I was looking at a living picture of all of our hearts. Layer upon layer of loss, hearts split wide open by the pain of it all, but there we were in the deepest part of the canyon being carried by a river. It was also HOT outside, like 110 degrees, but we never got too hot b/c there was this freezing cold water carrying us through the deepest part of that giant crevice in the earth. It struck me as I jumped into the river to cool off for the first time on that trip...there's a river running through our deepest pain, even in those moments when the chaos of life sends the temperature soaring, there's an ever-present current of love to cool us down and carry us on when it feels like we just can't take the heat any longer. 

When Holcomb came back from her trip, she started singing about it, writing about it, and talking about it non-stop. She began to write a whole other record full of songs based on her summer trip. "(I wrote songs) that speak to the deepest pain both in my own story and to the deepest sorrow and ache in this wide, wonderful, weary world."

One of those first songs she co-wrote was "Canyon," "After that co-write, I called my manager and said,`So, I've got to write more songs, b/c this record that I'm gonna make is gonna be called Canyon, and also, we are gonna need to find a place where I can be in a river in a canyon and sing this song at the same time.' And guess what? Sam just crushed it. She found Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National park and built a killer team of women to make all my canyon dreams come true! I'll be sharing about this EPIC work trip we took here on my feed this week."

Therefore, on June the 25th, Holcomb will release her third album Canyon. The album featutes the title-track, "Canyon," which is now available along with the stunningly beautiful music video shot at Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park. Holcomb taped the video along with a team of five women with the video directed by Shelby Goldsmith. Fans can also pre-order or pre-save the album here. 

Holcomb continues, "Every time I listen to this record, I want to run... fast! I'm not really a runner, but these songs, born out of a season of a lot of personal and global loss, feel like a soundtrack to healing and hope, and they fire me up! They feel like a rally cry to remember that while we've known a deeper sorrow, there's a higher hope!" 

For Canyon, Holcomb teamed with with an incredibly talented team of co-writers such as Natalie Hemby, Bear Rinehart of NEEDTOBREATHE and Thad Cockrell, and the project was produced by Cason Cooley along with executive producer and her dad, Brown Bannister. The title-track released today was written by Holcomb, Thad Cockrell and Cason Cooley.

 

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