Representing the great state of Arkansas, Ashley McBryde is Elaina Smith’s co-host this week on Backstage Country. Fresh from the release of her fifth studio album, Wild, McBryde will share the stories behind her songs with listeners.
Ashley McBryde Hits
“What If We Don’t”
Ashley McBryde - What If We Don't (Official Music Video)
“What If We Don’t” is not necessarily a new song, but rather a song that McBryde gave a second life to. “We wrote it on the patio at my friend Terri Jo's Box house,” McBryde said of the track that they wrote in 2016. “And I loved this song immediately. I knew how I could hear it and the way I wanted it to sound and be presented live. And even though we were able to play it in the live show for a little while, it just never landed the way I wanted it to land. I wanted to feel the way I feel when I sing.”
She explained that she didn’t want the song to be eligible on the radio and had to sing it in a way that she didn’t want it to sound. She played the song for producer John Osborne, who did his magic.
McBryde revealed that upon hearing the new imagined version, her reaction was that they nailed it. “It hit. I felt like I was riding really, really fast down a hill on a bicycle, but I was standing up, leaned against the handlebars. You know what I mean? Like, completely, I was carried. I was carried by the moment. And John was the correct engineer and pilot for this song.”
“Bottle Tells Me So”
Ashley McBryde - Bottle Tells Me So (Official Music Video)
Co-written with Box and Shelly Fairchild, McBryde shares that the title “Bottle Tells Me So” came from Box’s notes on her phone of the things they told each other over the years. When Box said, “bottle tells me so,” McBryde asked her, “How did we not write that? She said, ‘It wasn't time.’ I said, ‘It's time today. I cannot believe that you didn't take that title to somebody else. Thank you for not doing that.’ And I think this is the time to do it. Because in the darkness, you know, what's the saying? The first step into the light still happens in total darkness.”
The song, which was about McBryde’s drinking, reflected her experience. “I don't think all of the gravity of what I was going through and had been through and was learning how to be compassionate for. I wouldn't have been able to capture that without those two there without the time that has passed since deciding that I will no longer be drinking,” referring to Box and Fairchild.
McBryde also shared that it was her real-life experiences that made the song relatable, rather than just a singer or a songwriter who “read about having an alcohol problem.”
She added, “I think that was the right way to wrestle it in a reflective way, because I may have missed something if I hadn't experienced that moment thousands of times.”
For more of Ashley’s music, subscribe to her YouTube page here.
