- Hey, you guys, I am so excited about this episode
because the great Ellie Holcomb's here.
She is a singer, a songwriter, an author.
I mean, so much, and we've known each other
for how long now?
- Hmm, oh for- - [Rachel] Years?
- Yeah, I mean, I was gonna say a decade.
- 10? I would say 10.
- [Ellie] That makes me feel really old.
- I know! Surely not 10.
- Surely not 10.
- [Rachel] But-
- But I think it has been quite that long.
- Oh but, oh my gosh, there's so many things
to talk about right now.
So we can get into music stuff, that's where I was going.
But your new album, I've had multiple friends text me
and be like, "Have you heard this song?
Have you heard this song?"
So you're making an incredible impact.
- Thank you, friend.
- In what you're doing.
So tell everyone kind of what you're doing in life.
- Yeah, well-
- Who are you? Family, friends, kids, all of it.
- Family, friends, I love it!
- All of it!
All of it! - All of it!
Okay, so I am married to my best guy friend
that I swore I'd never date, Drew Holcomb.
We sing, and travel, and play shows together.
We've got three little kids, Emmylou, Huck and Rivers.
So we are full, we're all at home together.
It's the longest that my husband and I have ever been
in one place together at the same time,
ever in our whole marriage.
And we've been married for 14 years.
So that has been, there have been so many,
so many gifts to that.
But, mainly at home.
- Yes.
- [Ellie] Doing this.
- Okay, so I was gonna say. - [Ellie] Crazy.
- Because I mean, I traveled some for work.
Not as much as you. I mean, you guys are like road warriors.
Like y'all are gone all the time with the kids,
and all the things.
- Yes, yeah.
- So yeah, how-
- [Ellie] It's crazy.
- How is that all looking for you now?
- It's almost been like our kids
just have loved being in one place,
and a little bit more of, we have a general rhythm
for our family.
It looks a little different than, it's not traditional.
- Yep.
- But it's been a really beautiful thing,
to have more of a traditional rhythm.
- Yes.
- So I told my husband, we had just gotten off the road.
I feel really grateful we were able to tour
almost all of February, and then literally-
- [Rachel] It all hit March, yep.
- Everything got shut down.
So we did, we were gone, I think 24 days of February.
And our kids were with us on the road,
so they were waking up in a different city every day,
going to a different children's museum,
art museum, science museum.
So we got to the end of that tour and I was like,
"Drew, our kids need to be bored.
Like they need to be bored and create."
And, literally-
- They're like, "Take me to zoos. Take me."
- I know! They're like, "Let's go.
What children's museum are we seeing today?"
- Yeah, that's okay.
And I'm like, "Whoa, okay."
This isn't real life. This isn't normal.
So I, about a week into quarantine,
I look out on our little side deck,
we have a little turf side deck,
and they're out there, and there is a giant bucket
of water, with bubbles spilling over the side.
There's a magnifying glass.
There's, they have the whole goldfish thing out there,
and they're pouring the cracker goldfish-
- [Rachel] The fish. - into the bubbles.
And then a stethoscope, and this string
that they've tied up, and I'm like,
"They're bored! This is amazing!"
So I think, just even allowing kids,
I mean I feel like as a kid, I grew up, and it's like,
"Go outside, see you at dinner."
- Oh, 100%. Oh yeah.
- And so they are, there's a sense
that our younger kids are getting a little taste of that,
and that's so great.
- I know, I know. Because I swear,
I'm like the quarantine took us back to the '50s.
I feel like everyone saw everyone.
I saw more neighbors in my lot.
We wave, "Hey!"
And the kids are outside, playing.
It really is, there's this level that I was like,
"Oh wow, this is a little bit of how life's gonna be."
I want some of it to come back to normal.
- [Ellie] Some of it.
- Pretty quick, like right now.
- Like May.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah! Back in May, wasn't that nice?
But there are elements I think so many people
have picked out of this crazy time of life, that you keep.
And you're like, "You know what?
This is so good."
And we wanna keep that same rhythm.
So I love that.
- [Ellie] It's so great.
- Okay, you have a children's book,
a new one, but, and then we'll talk about it.
But can I first, just can I brag on your first one?
- Yes, thanks so much.
- Okay, so Ellie wrote "Who Sang the First Song?"
and my girls, this is their number one book.
Especially Caroline now, the youngest,
she'll be three this week.
And she's always like, "Do who sang the song mom book."
- [Ellie] Oh my gosh. - That's what she calls it.
So I'm like, "Okay."
So I'm like, "Who sang the first song?
Who hummed the first tune?
Was it the wind blowing past the silver moon?"
I know. I know your book, Ellie.
- [Ellie] You memorized it.
- Memorized it.
- [Ellie] I love that so much.
- And then the other thing that I loved,
as a mom, can I say this too?
It's short, which I really appreciate.
- No, that's why I wrote it short.
- And I was like, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Thank you, Jesus, for a short book."
- It is, yeah.
You're like, "Read the book, goodnight,
we can finish our prayers."
- It is, it's so great.
And the art, it's amazing.
- Kayla Harren is amazing.
- It's amazing.
Okay so, obsessed with your first book.
Okay, and then you have a new one out.
Oh, "Don't Forget to Remember."
So tell me about this.
Tell me, what was your thought behind this book?
- [Ellie] Sure.
- What were you wanting?
- So I've got, so okay, so crazy with kids.
As you know, young kids. It's wonderful, and it's full.
It's just, it's full.
And there's so many things that we're communicating to them.
And so all of the sudden, I was brainstorming
for this second book, and did a little two-book deal.
So I'm like, "What am I gonna do?"
I'm honestly so stressed out as a mom.
I just am busy, because it's just,
there's not a lot of margin.
And so I just was like, man!
I just, I get to the end of the day sometimes,
and I'm like, I've told my kids 1,000 things.
Wash your hands. Flush the toilet.
Say please. Say thank you.
Look people in the eye when you talk to them.
All these things that I've communicated to them.
But sometimes I get to the end of the day,
and I'm like, have I told them anything
that I actually really want them to know?
Like the things that really matter?
Like that they were made on purpose by God.
By God, who's crazy about them, no matter what they do.
So I just thought, but at the end of every day
we read a book or two.
- Yep, yep.
- Or half of one, depending on-
- How long it is.
And it was a sad day, when my little girl was like,
"Mom, you skipped three pages."
I was like, "Oh!"
- Isn't that the worst?
- [Ellie] Yes.
- Isn't that the absolute-
- [Ellie] Whoops!
- [Rachel] Dr. Seuss books, I'm always like-
- This is 60 pages!
- I just grab them. Oh yeah!
- Sam-I-Am, you're just like, "Yeah, we can."
- [Rachel] It is!
- Just reviewing everything-
- I just grab, I just grab a couple.
- Yeah, that's right, that's right.
So when she's like, "Mom, you missed it."
So I was like, "Whoa."
But every night, we read, and we sing,
and we pray, and we cuddle.
And so I just thought, man, if I could write a book
that could not only help my kids know what really matters
at the end of the day, but that would remind me,
because I forget too.
- [Rachel] That's good, yep.
- I wanna do that.
So I was like, let it be like a campfire
for families to gather around and warm our hearts
by the light of God's love.
It's my whole hope and prayer.
So it has been such a gift.
The book has been really, really sweet.
And it came out on, this page that you're on,
actually is really beautiful.
It came, so the release day was actually the day
after the tornado hit Nashville.
And it was so, I mean, we were out of power
in East Nashville. It went right behind our house.
It was really scary.
It was the scaredest I've ever been,
I think. And my husband was out of town.
He flew right back the next day,
but I was by myself with three kids,
and I woke up to our house shaking.
So I was, it was scary.
- [Rachel] Oh, terrible. Oh yeah, yes.
So I, we ended up all going down to the basement,
and the next day we're walking around the neighborhood,
checking on our friends and neighbors.
And there were so many houses that had so much damage,
and it wasn't really safe for kids to be in their own homes
because there was just glass and everything everywhere.
So I ended up gathering about 10 different kids
from around the neighborhood who ended up at my house.
Because we didn't have any glass, it was safe.
It wasn't, we didn't have power, but it wasn't like-
- Windows weren't busted out.
Windows weren't busted out, right.
And so they walked in and we had the balloons,
and flowers, and the book.
The book out on the table, and a lot of the kids,
they call me Lee-Lee, and they were like,
"Lee-Lee, what is all of this?"
And I was like, "Oh well, I was supposed
to release a book today, but we're gonna wait on that,
because we're all in the middle of dealing
with this storm."
And they're like, "Can we read it right now?"
So I ended up with 10 kids, who've probably been
through the scariest night of their life,
reading this together.
And so when we got to this page, they were like,
"We love this Lee-Lee!"
And one of the little boys said,
"Did you write a page about the tornado?"
And I was like, "Oh buddy, no, I didn't.
"I didn't write exactly about the tornado."
And we turned to this next page,
and it's just-
- The rain and a rainbow, yeah.
- "When a colorful rainbow peeks out through the rain,
don't forget to remember God's love stays the same.
On glad days and sad days, God's near and He knows.
He can use any storm to make good things grow."
And so they start going around and they were like,
"Lee-Lee, we already are seeing good!"
They were like, "There's all these people at our house
that are helping us clean it out, and so many people."
And then another kid's like, "So many people
have just hugged me today."
And then, "Somebody brought us donuts
and they don't even know us, they just thought
we might need food."
And here we all are together, and so I am literally-
- Oh, Oh. Undone, undone.
- This is not the release date that we expected,
but I could not imagine any more.
This is exactly what-
- This is it.
- I hoped this would be for.
And so it has been such a sweet thing and no,
not knowing we were headed into this current season
that we're in.
- [Rachel] Right. Oh yeah.
- That I would need, and that God and creation,
the sun comes up every day, reminding us mercies are anew.
Dead branches in the winter burst with new life,
reminding us death never has the final word.
Like He remakes things that look dead.
He breathes life into dead things.
And so there've been so many beautiful things
about the spring, and this season happening in the spring.
- Yes, yes. I've-
- [Ellie] I did not know how much I would need this book.
Do you know what I'm saying?
- Oh, 100%. Oh!
- Read it half the days, and I'm like, okay.
- I think, oh, but seriously, I think that's honestly
one of the most beautiful things about being a parent,
is you get books like this, or even like a children's Bible.
And I'm like, this stuff speaks to me so much more
than all the adults.
I think it really does, because it brings it back
to the simplicity of who God is, His promises.
- [Ellie] That's right.
- And the truth, right?
And then at the end of the day,
all of this doesn't matter.
Like this matters.
- [Ellie] This matters.
None of this matters.
- [Ellie] This matters.
- It just brings you back to that simplistic point,
that simplicity of life, and I feel like kids
do that so well, and-
- [Ellie] They're so good at it.
- They're so good at it.
- But I mean, there was a tree knocked down
by the storm, and there were leaves,
it was this dead tree, but leaves were still growing,
even though it got knocked down.
And my little boy was like, "Mommy!
God is still growing things, even after the storm!"
I was like, "Oh my gosh, buddy."
- You're like, He is, in so many ways.
- That's what He does, that's who God is.
- Yeah, He's a redeemer.
- He's a healer, you got it, bud! So-
- [Rachel] It's powerful.
- It is, it's such a gift.
And I love how we learn, we learn from our kids.
- We do, so much. Well, the book is absolutely amazing.
"Don't Forget to Remember," I mean, all this stuff again.
And I gotta throw it out just because Caroline
and Amelia would love it.
"Who Sang the First Song?"
It's the sweetest, sweetest kid book ever.
Okay, so where can they find this? Where can they find you?
- ellieholcomb.com, all the links for all the things
are on there, and there's music that goes
with both books, too, so that-
- [Rachel] CDs, yeah.
- The CDs, or if you're not doing CDs anymore,
although I still love them in my minivan.
It's like my only place where I listen to that, actually.
- Girl, do you? Ellie, I didn't know you had a minivan!
- [Ellie] I really do! Oh yes. I love it.
- I do too! I just got one a few months ago.
I'm obsessed. - It's a magic car.
- It literally, it's the most amazing car ever.
Okay, so minivans are great. These books are great.
And ellieholcomb.com. That's where you can find her.
Ellie, thanks for being on today.
- [Ellie] Thanks for having me.
- I so appreciate it. Thank you.
(upbeat music)