Light (On) In The Kitchen

"After we've written the song, I sent it to Mom, I sent it to Gloria, and I'm sending it to my sister. And slowly but surely now - we still say 'I Love You', because I come from a wonderful line of women that is quick to give you a hug and quick to tell you if they love you or if you have pissed them off. And now we tell each other: 'I'll leave the light on!'"

(Ashley McBryde / The Bobby Bones Show, March 3, 2023)

When Warner Music Nashville offered a major label deal to a commercially unknown female artist from Arkansas in September of 2017, she had by then already spent 10 long years performing in small clubs, hoping to eventually get a shot at the big stage. Now before the end of the same year 'A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega' became her debut single for Warner Music Nashville. A song which also let the world know, that Ashley McBryde is a gifted songwriter!

Almost 6 years later she has become one of the most respected artists in the country genre and in February of 2023 she was even able to rejoice over her first Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for the song 'Never Wanted to Be That Girl' with Carly Pearce. Yet she is commercially still waiting for her first Top-10 hit. A circumstance which may eventually change with her current single.

After 2 studio projects and the ambitious concept album "Lindeville" from last fall, her third studio album has now been announced for September of 2023. It will be named after one of the pre-released songs ("The Devil I Know"), on which Ashley McBryde commented in her press statement: "We’re always hearing something from somebody who thinks they know what’s best for us. Lose weight, your hair’s too curly, change this, change that. Things just seem to go better when you trust your own lens to see what’s good for you."

Mama says get my ass to church,
Daddy says get my ass to work,
Doctor says I gotta give up on these smokes.
Everybody's got somethin' to say,
about how I gotta change my way.

But I got somethin' to say of my own.
There's higher roads than I rode,
and better choices than I chose,
[but] I'm just stickin' with the devil I know.

(Devil I Know / Ashley McBryde, Bobby Pinson, Jeremy Stover)

It purposefully sets the tone for the Jay Joyce - produced project, for which she has waded through all sorts of recommendations, on what it should be like: not too country, not too rock, not with another tender, finger pickin’ song. According to Rolling Stone Country she had a perky reply to these and other suggestions: "We listened to all those opinions and said, ‘I hear you. I understand what you’re saying.’ But sadly, there’s no room on the record for your opinion. We’ll do what we want!"

At the beginning of June the sobering ballad 'Learned To Lie' about the realization how early experiences can take a disagreeble course later on in life, got released:

I learned to cry,
quietly, I learned to pray,
silently inside a house where the devil playеd.
And I hate that it runs in my blood,
I hate how easy it comеs.
I wish I'd learned how to love the same way
I Learned to lie.

(Learned to Lie / Nicolette Hayford, Ashley McBryde, Sean McConnell)

Her third pre-release from the upcoming project, the mid-tempo ballad and current single 'Light On In The Kitchen' however takes a much simpler, more optimistic and radio-friendly direction, as it's current position at number 28 on the Radio (Billboard Country Airplay) Chart indicates. "It is a tale of family values and morality, while also providing those words of support and wisdom that we all need in certain moments in our lives", says todayscountrymagazine.com about the song.

It lets the light shine in a kitchen, transfoming it to a place of warmth and encounter, even if the person it may be dedicated to cannot be present, as Ashley McBryde shares about the meaning of the title: "When I tell someone there’s a ‘Light On In The Kitchen’ for them, to me it means you’re thinking of them, even if they’re not coming home that night."

While Songwriters Jessi Alexander, Ashley McBryde and Connie Harrington make this the metaphor and the centerpiece of the song, they additionally surround it by heartfelt advice for a happy life. "Jessie [Alexander]did say she was writing this song from her perspective, she was giving advice to her teenage daughter", remembers Ashley McBryde when asked by Bobby Bones about the song creation process.

Well, honey, trust yourself,
laugh at yourself.
If somethin' tries to hold you back,
get up and give it hell.

And for heaven's sake,
always have a place,
that you can do some cryin' and some bitchin',
and always leave a light on in the kitchen.

(Light On in The Kitchen / Jessi Alexander, Ashley McBryde, Connie Harrington)

While the theme of the song seems to strive for the power of 'Humble And Kind' (2015) by Tim McGraw, the encouraging and catchy track checks all the boxes for potentially letting it become the first Top-10 hit for  Ashley McBryde. A success that not only she may be hoping for, but the rest of the world certainly wishes her as well.