Emily Scott Robinson Traveling Mercies
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Song Premiere: Emily Scott Robinson's Tender Message to Wanderers, 'Traveling Mercies'

Emily Scott Robinson has spent the past few years living full-time in an RV with her husband, traveling the country, touring, exploring and, perhaps most importantly, collecting stories.

"That's my favorite part of my job," Robinson tells Wide Open Country. "We've spent a lot of time in places— small towns, a lot of time out west, a lot of time in the middle of nowhere — places that hold a lot of history and hold a lot of stories but that people don't necessarily feel are all that important anymore. A lot of rural America and middle-of-nowhere places don't feel like they necessarily matter so much as bigger places. I have found that people living in those places have the most amazing and interesting stories."

Those stories, and several of Robinson's own, are captured on her debut album Traveling Mercies (out on Feb. 22). The stunning title track, which Wide Open Country is premiering today, sends a tender message to the wanderers of the world and those in search of home.

"I wrote this song when they were trying to keep people from coming into the country who had green cards and who had family here....What I was trying to say with this song is that no matter who you are or where you're from, we all have the same love for the people in our family. We all share that. When we send somebody we love out into the world, there's no promise that they're going to come home safe to us," Robinson says. "Whether you're from here or from somewhere else, we are the people who receive each other in the world. We can be traveling mercies for each other."

Robinson says her travels, along with the stories she's collected along the way, have taught her a lot.

"Despite the fact that the news would have you believe that the world is going to hell in a hand basket, we've really found a lot of kindness and goodness out there alive and well in the world. Strangers have been very kind to us and people have helped me along the way," Robinson says. "We've just received a lot of those 'traveling mercies' on the road."

For more information on Emily Scott Robinson, visit her official website.

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