After fifteen years as life partners, guitarist Chris “Critter” Eldridge and singer-songwriter Kristin Andreassen have finally released their first song as a musical duo. If you know their work, you won’t be surprised to learn it’s a low-key banger.
“I Won’t Ever Give Up on You,” which the couple posted on YouTube shortly before Election Day, is a stubborn love song to America. It begins with a sad and familiar story about people so appalled by what’s going on in our country that they’re talking about “Flying off someplace/That’s still in working order.” Instead, they decide to stay, talk to their neighbors and work to “mend it someday.” Then comes an incantatory chorus:
I won’t ever give up
I won’t ever give up
I won’t ever give up
And I swear that it’s true
I won’t ever give up
I won’t ever give up
I won’t ever give up
I won’t ever give up on you
So a love song about standing up for democracy is hitting at a moment when millions of Americans are going to the polls to do just that. But the song also reaches across the political divide, seeking to forge connection among all kinds of Americans with all kinds of views.
Kristin is a tireless community builder (she co-founded the Miles of Music artist camp) and prolific songwriter with a voice like a clear mountain lake. She co-wrote this one in 2025 with her Nashville neighbor, singer-songwriter Robby Hecht. Robby came to their writing session with the “won’t ever give up” nugget of a conventional love song. Kristin came with the first line of what she calls an “existential political song.” They worked on each idea individually, she says, “without landing anything great.” Then the two ideas collided and they suddenly had something special.
Critter – one of our finest pickers, a gifted producer, and for almost 20 years the guitarist in Punch Brothers – refined the chordal structure and added a key change that brings the tune home. Hearing his voice blend with hers on this song is quietly thrilling.
“A bunch of the songs I’ve been writing lately start with one true sentence,” Kristin says. “In this case it was, ‘Man, what are we going to do? All my friends are talking about leaving.’ Because the country we grew up in, we don’t recognize it. And maybe don’t feel welcome here.
“That’s the moment to step forward and say, ‘No, you can’t bully me into thinking I need to leave.’ I’m being called to stay. I have to trust that there’s a majority who value democracy and are against blatant corruption. We’re all neighbors – we have to remember how to have productive conversations when we disagree. That’s the purpose of government.”
Kristen and Critter have begun work on a duo album, and they’ve been squeezing duo gigs in between legs of Critter’s massive Punch Brothers tour while caring for their four-year-old. But they decided this song couldn’t wait for the album. As the midterms approached, Critter says, “we were feeling the vibe shift in the country and saying, ‘Hey, this is the moment for this song. We just need to record it and get it out.’ So that’s what we’re doing, because its time is now.”
Above photo: Laura Schneider
