I Can Do Hard Things

Album: single release only (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • A slow, acoustic guitar-driven song, "I Can Do Hard Things" is an anthem for personal empowerment which finds Jennifer Nettles musing on overcoming adversity.

    Sometimes I don't like it
    But that don't mean I don't love it
    Sometimes I get down so low
    But that don't mean I can't rise above it


    Nettles explained on Twitter: "This song for me is a truth telling, a bloodletting, a real-life heart opening to what it means to be a grown woman. It is my offering to honor the reality that, as I like to say, everything is everything."
  • The black-and-white video for the song, filmed in Nashville and Brooklyn, shows seven women giving us a glimpse into their lives. The personal "hard things" they overcome range from caring for the disabled and single motherhood to sexual assault:

    "This song took on a life quickly and unexpectedly," Nettles explained to ABC Radio. "For me, in writing it, I was just writing my own Truth and story. But what I have come to see is that so many women share this Truth, and that inspired me to make an invitation."

    The clip was filmed by photographer Katie Kauss, whose other credits include shooting the cover of Will Hoge's Small Town Dreams album.

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