Julie Byrne Celebrates Nature’s Wonder on “Follow My Voice”

Even when Julie Byrne is not singing about swashes of color in the sky or stars reflecting on the sea at night, there is an undeniably organic aura to her music. She conjures the sensation of nature’s life-affirming intimacy and wonder, like that of spotting a deer in the early morning mist. Some writers will never cease in their attempts to represent the earth’s sublimity with similes and metaphors (ahem), but Byrne is confident that this beauty can speak for itself.

As such, Byrne’s newest song, “Follow My Voice,” is a gentle reflection on the sacrifices made for love and newfound devotion. Byrne, a part-time park ranger, ruminates on clouds passing by and a lover’s eyes in the sunlight. “I consciously died, I seen dew on a rose/I seen a double rainbow, I got a complicated soul,” she sings against her raw slide guitar. Byrne told Stereogum that the song is “a plea for those in pain not to be overtaken by fear” because “our own capacity to love extends so far beyond the boundaries of what we’ve been told and lead to believe.” The omnipotence of love may not feel natural today, but Byrne suggests that we can always turn to the Earth for a reminder.

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