Love has its ups and downs and Jessica Lynn has the soundtrack for your emotional ride.
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“Run To,” premiering here today on American Songwriter, is a dramatic, country-tinged ballad with big production, emotional vocals and a majestic, Bon Jovi-influenced guitar solo that echoes the singer’s pleading cry for her lover to return into her arms.
Lynn, a New York native who fronts her own band with her husband Steve Sterlacci on guitar, has drawn comparisons to several other big singers, including Shania Twain and Faith Hill. She has toured Europe, where “Run To” has already cracked the charts in several countries, and penned multiple songs with top hit writers in Nashville and Europe, including her last two singles “Crazy Idea” (Top 50) and “Let’s Don’t” (Top 40).
A multi-instrumentalist on guitar, bass, harmonica, piano and drums, Lynn wrote “Run To” on her guitar and recorded the full song at the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Lyrically, she was trying to convey the sense of longing for someone or something no longer in your life. “I wanted to release a song that was very honest and truly from the heart.”
Like many classic ballads though (including many wedding songs), the lyrics work on multiple levels, which adds to the song’s appeal. Some will gravitate towards the ‘what have I done to lose you’ lines while others will sway in their lovers’ arms singing “I wanna run to/Anything that makes me feel you.”
Musically, a gentle piano and chorused, arpeggiated guitar anchor the track at the start, with sympathetic strings and pedal steel fills supporting the singer’s restlessness: “I can’t just quiet my mind/It talks all the time/Figuring us out/Where do we go?” “Run To” features the required, must-have big key change on the outro, with Lynn’s vocals soaring above the band and dramatically riding the song out.
A big fan of passionate and honest songwriting, Jessica Lynn cites one of the world’s best balladeers as her musical inspiration.
“I was lucky enough to open for Richard Marx this year and it was an incredible moment for me because he was my very first concert when I was five years old. It was such a special night that really made me think about my journey in music. Richard Marx just has a knack for such beautiful chord structures and lyrics that really make you feel something. His music is so sentimental and relatable.”
