"I'll Just Hold On" is the title of a country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 song written by Ben Hayslip

Ben Hayslip

Ben Hayslip is an American country music songwriter. Hayslip attended Evans High School near Augusta, Georgia where he was an All-State first baseman leading the Evans baseball team to the 1988 Georgia state championship...

, Troy Olsen

Troy Olsen

Troy Olsen is an American country music singer-songwriter signed to EMI Nashville, a sister label to Capitol Records Nashville...

, and Bryant Simpson. It was recorded by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 singer Blake Shelton

Blake Shelton

Blake Tollison Shelton is an American country music artist. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin". Released as the lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" went on to spend five weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts...

 on his fifth studio album, Startin' Fires

Startin' Fires

-Critical reception:CM Wilcox of The 9513 gave the album 3.5 stars out of 5. He referred to the material on the album as "consistent" but states that the album takes few chances...

. The song was released in early 2009 as the album's second single.

Content

The song is a mid-tempo ballad in which the male narrator expresses his love for a free-spirited woman who does not want to stay with anyone. He tells her, "I'll just hold on / Until you're gone." The song features a sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

 in the intro, with fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

 and electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 flourishes as well.

Reception

Lynn Douglas of Country Universe gave the song a C+ rating. His review of the song states that "[Shelton] has tenfold the personality and talent that this prosaic song and standard Nashville country-pop production would have us believe." Matt Bjorke of Roughstock gave a mixed review, saying that the use of sitar gave the song a distinctive sound, but added "the lyric has been said before and I have to wonder if the release of this song won’t return Shelton back to the valley portion of his career."

Chart performance

"I'll Just Hold On" debuted at #60 on the Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

chart dated March 7, 2009, and reached a peak of #8 on the chart in September 2009.
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Chart (2009)	Peak position