Thanksgiving is a time of reflection, giving thanks and gathering with friends and family around the table. Audrey Auld is an Americana singer-songwriter who, just days before the holiday, took the Oath of Allegiance, and today she will be giving thanks as an American citizen.
Just moments after the ceremony, Auld, caught up in the excitement, said, “I just feel very emotional. I feel like crying and I’m very, very happy. It just affects your whole body.”
Honorable Judge E. Clifton Knowles led the ceremony in his Nashville courtroom. Auld moved to the United States in 2003 after she hooked back up with a sailor she had met back in Australia in the 1980s.
“And here we are eight years later,” Auld says. “And I am very happily married, and I’m Mrs. America!"
It wasn’t until after living on American soil that the Australian songwriter started thinking about becoming a citizen. “I realized what a political entity this country is in the world,” Auld said.
Auld says she has always felt welcomed and embraced in America, and on Friday she took off on a mini-tour through Pennsylvania, North Carolina and West Virginia.
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-994872.mp3
Audrey Auld: "Forty" and "Tree" from her most recent CD, Come Find Me.
“I feel like I’m home and I belong here,” Auld explains. “And everywhere I went, people were just so happy for me when they knew that I had just become a citizen. There was a great sense of welcoming, which I’ve always felt here as I’ve toured America.”
http://youtu.be/kJrFnfbWtrI
Daniel Potter from Nashville Public Radio contributed to this story.