Introduction:
For Amy Lee Nelson and Tina Rose Bridges, grief fueled their debut single.
The daughters of Willie Nelson and Leon Russell, who comprise the newly formed country/Americana duo ALeeN ROSE, were guided by the spirits and their personal losses with their first song, “They’re There.”
The wistful song pays tribute to Amy’s late brother Billy, who died on Christmas Day in 1991, and Tina Rose’s late father, who died in 2016.
“Tina Rose called me one evening during lockdown and we spoke about the feelings of loss surrounding the death of her dad,” Amy, 52, said in a statement. “I told her how I’ve found myself often saying ‘they’re there’ when speaking of loved ones who have passed. I shared with her a song that I had begun writing after having dream visions of my brother, Billy.”
She added, “I asked her to write the second verse as a healing outlet for her pain and grief. I was blown away by the verse she brought back to me. But it still wasn’t finished, and we weren’t sure where to take it.”
That’s when the pair asked Willie, 93, for help, and he wrote the bridge. Later, he added vocals and played guitar on the song.
“Now it is a full-on family song, as it should be,” added Amy.
“God ain’t in the business of taking love away / They’re there baby it’s okay,” the pair sing on the chorus.
Tina Rose, 47, added in a statement that she found the song’s concept “so powerful.”
“I was honored that she invited me to contribute to it,” she said. “My verse is about a distinct memory I have — of the first time my dad visited me in a dream after he died. It was so comforting, and I genuinely felt as if I got to spend some time with him.”
“In my dreams, my daddy tells me stories / Of all the things I can do and who I could be / He takes my hand / says understand you’re still beside me/ I’m not gone/ We are waltzing inside this dream,” Tina Rose sings on her verse.
“They’re There” is out now on what would have been Billy’s 68th birthday.