There is a special reason why Natalie Grant decided to record a cover of Bob Dylan‘s “Make You Feel My Love” on her latest album, Seasons. She was driving in the car with her three daughters when Adele’s cover of the classic song came on the radio. What started as Grant correcting her daughters’ belief that the song was originally sung by Adele, turned into a sentimental moment that Grant will cherish for the rest of her life. She captured that sweet moment on Seasons, with her rendition of “Make You Feel My Love” sounding nostalgic and comforting. Below, Grant takes American Songwriter inside that car ride and shares what the Dylan song means to her.
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“I did a cover of ‘Make You feel My Love’ by Bob Dylan and that came about because we were on a family vacation driving in a rental car and my kids were telling me how much they loved Adele’s song ‘To Make You Feel My ‘Love and I was like, ‘I think her version is incredible, but it’s not an Adele song.’ And they were like, ‘Yes, it is,’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s a Bob Dylan song’ and then I played them Dylan. We were talking about why they like this version better or that and there was something, I can’t explain it, but all three of my daughters were sitting across the seat in the backseat of this rental car and it gets to that verse: I’d go hungry / I’d go black and blue / I’d go crawling down the avenue / No, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do / To make you feel my love.
[RELATED: Natalie Grant and Dolly Parton Cover Whitney Houston’s “Step by Step”]
I know Dylan did not write this song as a song from a mother to their children, but this is exactly what I would say to my kids and I started to cry. My kids are like, ‘Are you crying right now?’ [laughs] and I’m like, ‘I am. I’ve never heard the song in this way, but this is what I would sing to you.’ I ended up deciding to cover it and I put my mom on it. She’s 83 years old, they still live in my childhood home. My husband [Bernie Herms], who’s my producer, flew out to Seattle and recorded her vocal in my childhood home. To have my mom and my daughters singing the backgrounds on it, it’s very personal and really special. A gift to my family for sure.”
Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for BET
