I’m an avid “Nashville” fan. I’ve watched the show from the beginning, at first in secret. It was a guilty pleasure. But then I got really into the music.
After hearing “Consider Me”, a slow, heart wrenching ballad performed by Hayden Panettiere, I scoured the internet looking for the audio. I didn’t find Panettiere’s version, but I did find a version by an artist named Ashley Monroe.
I was unaware at the gem I had just uncovered. That song literally ripped all my feels to shreds. I immediately binged on all of her other songs and albums.
Since then, she’s been a real creative role model, and a constant on any Rhapsody or Tidal playlist I’ve created. I’ve borderline stalked her tour schedule, but so far, I haven’t been successful in seeing her perform live. I would love to see her perform at the Bluebird someday.
There’s just so much about her that’s real. She has an authentic grit to her country twang, her lyrics and voice equivalent to a chocolate covered pretzel. Mostly sweet, but with a distinct bitterness and a little salty.
Her most recent album, The Blade, has been out for awhile, but I’m always passing it along to friends, so I figured I’d do a post about it.
Here are my top 5 favorite tracks from The Blade:
On To Something Good
Twangy, upbeat. This song really resonated with me at flirtatious start of my last relationship. As we enjoyed late nights out, one too many drinks, and cute texts back and forth, Monroe (almost cautiously) sang in the background:
“Feels like I’m coming home
It’s in the wind that’s blowing, it’s in the red wine
Life’s got it’s way of showing when it’s the right time…
I feel like I’m onto something good.”
The perfect track for when you’re afraid to feel optimistic about something.
I Buried Your Love Alive
Monroe loves you, whoever you are, but she’s so over it. This track plays like a scene from Kill Bill, percussion like a heartbeat as she reflects:
“I found the bottle, drank some booze,
I did what I had to do…
Yeah, I buried your love alive.”
Basically the song that’s played in the background whenever you’ve had to cut someone out of your life.
Bombshell
My second to favorite track. It captures one of the unappealing parts of love: the heartbreak of when you realize that even though you love someone deeply, you just don’t want to (or can’t) be with them anymore.
It’s always the worst feeling, loss and guilt, as you have to sit with that knowing until you have the courage to tell someone that you’re not in love with them.
“Here on my shoulders
I tell you it’s over
‘Stead of keepin’ it to myself.
Morning or midnight
It’ll never be a good time
To drop a bombshell.
I can’t love you, I can’t love you anymore…”
I listened to this track a lot during the weeks before I left my last job. The awful realization that I would never feel like it was a good time to quit, I just had to do it and move on, despite all of the incredible people I was leaving behind.
The Blade
In my opinion, one of the most relatable songs of the album. For the good ol’, crushed girls that pick themselves out of the rubble of falling for, and suddenly being dumped, by the wrong guy. She captures the feeling perfectly by equating it to catching a knife the wrong way.
“You said goodbye,
Is not the end
And if you need me
I’m still your friend.
Well, that’s easy for you to say
‘Cause you caught it by the handle
And I caught it by the blade.”
Monroe’s vocals are at their best, her voice vibrates with raw emotion and really paints a picture of this particularly hellish form of a head on collision of a heartbreak. You see it coming, but you barely have any time to prepare for the shock.
If The Devil Don’t Want Me
My. favorite. track. God, I love this song.
This track encapsulates the feeling of being rejected by all the wrong things, and how isolating that can feel. Monroe talks about the ups and downs of a washed up party girl who can’t even get the devil (the wrong things, places, situations) to want her, on top of someone she calls “heaven”. She hauntingly sings and questions:
“If I can’t see the light
In the neon glow.
No, there ain’t enough whiskey
To kill the fire in my soul…
If the devil don’t want me
Where the hell do I go?”
Off The Album Honorable Mention: Shine
I wanted to add this one even though it’s not from The Blade. Sam Palladino expertly covered this one on Nashville, but no one sings it like Monroe. This song legit makes me choke up, the honesty and passion of the lyrics, combined with the perfect melody, is delicate and pure.
Monroe sings about everything you think and feel when you’re completely in love with someone who’s struggling with themselves. Suited to Palladino’s lovestruck Gunnar, the song longingly says,
“I’ve loved you so long that I can hardly remember
What it was like without you here.”
Monroe’s album is available on iTunes. I’m currently listening to it on Tidal, and it’s also on Rhapsody.