Americana artist Lora Kelley returns with “If You Let Me” - a tender, emotionally resonant single that explores the courage it takes to offer and receive love in the face of fear, wounds, and the longing to be truly seen.
Charlottesville, VA (October 3, 2025) — Americana singer-songwriter Lora Kelley returns with “If You Let Me”, a soul-baring new single releasing October 3, as part of her upcoming record Where I Am Now. Known for her warm vocals and introspective storytelling, Kelley once again invites listeners into a deeply emotional and honest conversation - this time, about love, forgiveness, and the courage it takes to receive both.
Rooted in the rich textures of folk and Americana, “If You Let Me” echoes the intimate, earthy style of artists like Natalie Merchant, blending acoustic instrumentation with lyrical tenderness and a quiet but powerful strength. The track explores the vulnerability and resilience needed to love and be loved in return, especially in the wake of relational pain, fear, or generational patterns. “This song is a little bit about negotiating with our wounds - our capacity to love and receive love,” Kelley shares. “Shared love is love that is felt by both parties. Where both people can impact each other to the degree that they experience being love - at the same time,” says Kelley. “If that's not happening - then the question becomes - what's coming between my feelings of love for you and your ability to feel that. And can we be with whatever that is so that you actually get to experience and feel what it feels like to be loved.”
Penned with raw lyrical intimacy, the song opens with a direct offer: “If you let me, I will forgive you... If you let me, I will love you.” As it unfolds, the message becomes a meditation on relational repair - between partners, within families, and with the parts of ourselves that fear we are too broken to be loved fully. “To be seen and felt. That’s what this song is about.”
Cover art for “If You Let Me" - Image by Amy Cherry.
Produced by the same trusted team behind her previous release “Man Behind the Curtain” - Jeremy Casella (Producer), Matt Stanfield (piano), Josh Hunt (drums), Jacob Lowery (bass), Nate Duggar (guitar) and Mike Payne (guitar), with Evan Redwine (Engineer) - , “If You Let Me” continues Kelley’s evolution as a writer of emotional depth and clarity. This single is the next offering from Where I Am Now, a record that charts the internal landscape of marriage, personal growth, and the hard-won beauty of honest connection.
Whether navigating the quiet spaces of long-term commitment or the reckoning that comes with inherited emotional wounds, “If You Let Me” offers a balm: the chance to choose softness over fear, repair over retreat, and love that is actively felt - if we’re willing to let it in.
Photos by Amy Cherry
About Lora Kelley
Rooted in the themes of resilience and gentle honesty, Lora's work is deeply informed by her background in narrative-based trauma care, including her studies with the Allender Center. Her music stands as a testament to the beauty of brokenness, offering not platitudes, but presence — a hand to hold in the dark. Raised amid the liminality of faith and living today on a conserved farm in Virginia with her partner, children, and a lively menagerie of pets, Lora crafts songs that feel lived-in, earthy, and unflinchingly honest. Her upcoming album, releasing November 7, will continue to explore the emotional terrains where suffering and hope coexist — a body of work poised to resonate with those yearning for deeper connection and sacred honesty.