Ashley Barron crafted her debut album out of a year filled with heartache and strife. While the pandemic was hard on everyone, it hit Barron especially hard. The majority of the songs reflect what she was going through during that time.
The Start of an Album: “Beer in a Bar”
Barron began writing songs for her album about four years ago during a week and a half writing session when she first signed with her label, SSM Nashville. One of them, “Beer in a Bar” climbed all the way to #37 on the Billboard chart, which is a huge success for any artist, let alone a new one.
“That was crazy,” Barron exclaimed, describing how she felt at the time. “When I release these songs, I really try not to have expectations,” she said. Barron initially planned on selecting a different song, but her dad chose this single as his favorite, so she obliged.
This was the first time that she had ever sat down with other songwriters. As soon as Michael Huffman walked in, he read them his idea for this particular tune on a piece of crinkled paper–evident of his approach towards writing music from decades past. The words came alive after hearing them!
An Album That Tells a Story
Barron wrote the majority of the album during the pandemic. She takes the listener through so many facets of her recent experiences of loss and heartache. “I decided to just pour myself into my music,” she said. During this time, she lost her mom, her relationship with her boyfriend, and had to cancel many tour dates.
Barron’s mom was her rock. She shared, “My mom was my everything and she was my biggest support with my relationship, with my music, everything.” Her parents encouraged to take the leap into the country music industry. They told her, “You only regret the things in life that you don’t do.” Barron explained, “Having them back me gave me all the confidence.”
Her mom got really sick with an auto-immune disease that Barron also has, called Scleroderma. Her mother’s was systemic, attacking her inside organs, while Barron’s is linear, attacking her skin when she was young.
Before her mother passed away, Barron wrote “Call Her Mama” and her mom loved it. She played the song at the funeral.
An Almost “I Do”
Not only did Barron lose her mom during the pandemic, but she lost the person she hoped to spend forever with. Her boyfriend and she planned to get engaged and even started merging finances, looking for a house, etc. She found out that he cheated on her, but still hoped to work through it. That all changed when one day, Barron saw on Facebook that he had gotten the other woman pregnant.
She wrote “Pretend He’s You” before she knew of the pregnancy and was trying to get over him. The song is about a random biker she met, who was sweet and everything that her ex wasn’t. “And yet at the same time, I just couldn’t do it,” she said. “Another relationship just wasn’t the right choice.”
After realizing they were done for good, she wrote “Heart Space.” She stated that her favorite line in it is:
“One girl’s trash is another girl’s treasure. Y’all can haul it away.”
– “Heart Space”
Even though she endured a lot of pain, Barron came out stronger in the end. “Blaze a Trail” talks about taking on the world when nothing can stop you. She added “6 Feet Over You” to elicit some humor after her recent breakup. Each song is like chapter of a book.
“The Wind”
“The Wind” was a really special song for Barron. She started to write it for her ex’s daughter, her future stepdaughter who was a true cowgirl, barrel raced, and loved horses. Barron paused on writing the song and when she came back to it, she changed its direction. “It changed my life, honestly, because I started to write it for myself,” she admitted.
This song is the perfect way to summarize everything that was on this album. You can call upon God and let all of your worries go away if you just look up, trust in Him for help, then things will turn out beautifully!
“The album as a whole,” Barron began, “I’m proud of because it is my true testimony about what I went through. And honestly, there’s heartbreak in it, but there’s fun in it, and it’s finding the glory and the triumph over all of that.” She hopes people will see that and relate to it. Listen to Ashley Barron’s album below and order it from her website!
