Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Ashley McBryde has long excelled at painting portraits of small-town America.
Her first two albums 2018sGirl Going Nowhereand 2020sNever Will were critically acclaimed for their stripped-down realism and effortless vulnerability.
Now shes taken things a step further.
After the success ofNever Will, you could have gone ahead and released a more traditional third album.
We had written a song one day Aaron Raitiere, Nicolette Hayford, and myself called Blackout Betty.
Now Blackout Betty is my nickname when I party too hard.
I have earned every syllable of the nickname without a problem.
Nicolettes alter ego when she parties too hard is Pillbox Patti.
Aaron had a song called Jesus Jenny, and he and Nicolette had written Living Next to Leroy.
Shutup Sheila also exists.
I was like My God, on accident weve made all these cool characters over the years.
And we didnt mean to do it, but it happened.
So what we should do is get together and give them neighbors and give them a place to live.
But we went there, we locked ourselves in this house for like six days.
I think it was me, Nicolette, and Aaron, plus Connie Harrington.
And we always love to have Brandy Clark around.
The goal was for all of us to just write things we felt like writing.
Best-case scenario: You end up with a batch of songs that all work for one project.
And thats what we did.
We were able to do it with no shoulds.
There was noThese songs should have a track were writing to.
There was noOh, we should write an up-tempo song today.
We just wrote what we felt like writing.
And we were just trying to make cool shit.
That was the only goal.
I want to talk to you about this idea of community, which seems central to the album.
When youre making something like this, it was such a completely community-driven thing.
There were six damn writers on every song!
Finding people like John Osborne that do understand me both musically and as a human being is really important.
That allows the pressure to be taken off of it.
But its a 50-50 shot on that.
So that sense of community tickles me a little bit.
We were just like, Yay, lets invite more people to the sandbox!
One thing I love aboutLindevilleis how there are little jingles and commercials that flesh out the track list.
It brings some levity to the project.
Was that a reflection of the mood of the writing sessions?I think so.
You cant write sad songs all day or youll drive on the curvy parts when you leave.
Even though we love writing sad songs.
But those jingles were all written when we were taking a break from writing a song.
Wed go outside and all of a sudden wed come up with a jingle.
I guess it is a really nice representation of just the mood we were in and also everybodys personalities.
Thats just how we are.
[Laughs] Were just a bunch of weirdos.
Its not all beautiful red-dirt roads.
Theres nothing wrong with those songs and those pictures of those moments.
That happens in those small towns too!
And its okay to address it as well as laugh at it.
We are human disasters.
Nicolette and I wrote Living Next to Leroy.
Leroy was a real person in Florida and he was a meth-head.
He wasnt a bad guy … he just used a lot of hard substances.
Its a little bit of brutal honesty.
Even the absurdity of Gospel Night at the Strip Club, I dreamed that title.
And I said, Gospel night at the strip club!
In the bars that I played Ive been playing in bars since I was 19 theyd have cowboy church.
Some of them would have biker church.
So even the absurdity of gospel night at the strip club I think is being honest.
Your first two albums have both been critically praised.
And this would be in moments when Id come up with a line that they thought was too heady.
And it may not have been the right line.
But lets notnotuse something because you just told me this about our listeners?!
Thats the most insulting thing you could ever say to me!
The first record comes out and its supposed to be an active snapshot of where youre at.
Then record two comes out and thats proof that record one was not an accident.
Now you have permission to grow a little.
Of course, if you grow too much, the people are going to be super-judgy about it.
I didnt realize that was a thing.
Its such a weird thing to accept that as a reality.
I guess I was just like, Fuck it.
Ill make two records in two completely different directions.
To me, its weird that you either have to be the shiny new object or not.
If youre making music for enjoyment it will be audible in the record.
But if youre just doing it to stay relevant, that also will be audible.
You mentioned youve completed two new albums.
So I assume fans can expect another in addition toLindeville?Oh, its ready!
In fact, we went back and forth of whether we put the third record out first orLindeville.
Until we said, What is expected?
Record three is expected.
ThenLindevilledeserves a shot now.
So I would say spring 2023.
Its all ready to go and were already trying some of those songs out live.
So Id rather try it this way.
After listening toLindeville, fans are surely going to want to hear it live.
Ive got my fingers in some things right now trying to make that happen.
In my perfect world, this would happen at the Ryman.
It would be done very Opry style, because of the jingles and the ads.
I have no problem giving credit to where that inspiration comes from.
And it would be all of us from the original record.
That would be an interesting concept.
