Musical artist Ashley Ray at New Spire Stages

BY COLIN MCGUIRE Special to The News-Post

After more than 20 years, Ashley Ray can call Nashville home. As in, home home. Though she grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, the singer has officially eclipsed the two-decade mark living in Music City as she pursued her dream of being a musician. And it’s worked. Not only has she shared stages with everyone from Little Big Town to Charles Kelly but she even has an official Tiny Desk Concert to her name.

She’ll bring her blend of atmospheric Americana and country music to New Spire Stages on April 6 as part of the Tivoli Discovery Series.

72 Hours recently caught up with her to talk about her songwriting, a slew of upcoming projects she has in the works and, of course, what it will be like touring with her two young children — including a newborn — by her side.

I like to start with this, especially with people I don’t know: How did you get into music? How did your journey begin?

Oh my gosh. I’ve loved music forever. I’m one of those kids where my parents have pictures of me playing piano and guitar. My parents are also huge music lovers and the radio was always on, so I think it’s kind of in my bones. I can’t remember a time where I didn’t love music.

Because it was in your bones, did you feel a responsibility to pursue it?

Not necessarily a responsibility. My parents are hard-working, blue-collar people from the Midwest. If I wanted to do music and live my dream, I was going to have to move to Nashville. So I don’t know if it was a responsibility. No one else in my family is musical at all — they just play records. But I knew that I wanted to do it. It was an aching. None of my family had ever really left Kansas and Missouri. There were a lot of things that made me wonder if I could do this, but it was more just an aching and a wanting than anything.

How long have you been in Nashville now?

I’ve been here 21 years.

So, that’s more home right now?

Yeah, it’s crazy. I crossed over that “living here longer than where I was born and raised” threshold.

I want to jump into a few specific things. I came across this tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd where you covered “Sweet Home Alabama,” and I just loved it. I’m interested in how you came to that project and how you came to that song in that way.

That was really fun. My producer at the time was amazing, so prolific. His name was Jay Joyce and he produces Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Patty Griffin — he’s all over the map and he’s so talented. He was producing me at the time, and he produced that record. None of the guys would sing the song. No one wanted to touch “Sweet Home Alabama,” and he called me one day and said, “I want you to come over and sing something.” I thought he just wanted me to come over and finish my record. I get there and he’s telling me what he wants me to sing and I was like, “No way, man!” A, I didn’t want to be the only woman on there, and B, I knew my career would be over if I messed it up. Plus, I loved Lynyrd Skynyrd. My dad was a huge fan. But Jay said I was the only one with the balls to do it, so that made me want to do it [laughs]. So, we played around with it, and we first wanted to do it uptempo, like the original, but it just wasn’t translating. I thought, “This is too close to the original,” so Jay just started playing something really slow and moody — something I would do as an artist. Then I started singing it, and he pulled up some mics, and we went from there.

So that was just a spur of the moment thing?

I’d say Jay led the way on that. He started playing this atmospheric, amazing thing, and I just started singing to it. The inspiration was there in the room.

Atmospheric is another word that I wanted to get to with a lot of your music. I want to ask you about the song “Pauline.” It seems to be personal — but maybe not. I just want to hear the story behind it and the voicemail that precedes.

My middle name is Pauline. I’m named after my mom’s mom, who I never got to meet, and ... she’s just a legend in our family. There’s not one holiday that goes by where we don’t talk about her. I was named after her. I remind my whole family of her. So, when we started this record, I was talking about her, and I called my mom to make sure I was getting some facts right with my lyrics. My mom just started talking — my whole family are storytellers — and my producer, Sean, threw up some microphones and started recording our conversation. It’s really special to me that my mom named me after Pauline. It’s the first song on the album, and it just kind of felt like it needed to be that way. It was a gut instinct thing to do that, after we had recorded her voice. The whole song is about my grandmother and me being named after her.

It’s a beautiful, haunting song. You can feel a lot of atmospherics in it. Is that something that’s an important part of you approaching songwriting? Making sure the vibe is there?

Yeah. A lot of times, I know a lot of people see the song cinematically. They see it as they write it. I always do that as well. I always say if I’m trying to relay something, I’m trying to paint the picture of what I see in my head. That’s how I write songs, and sometimes that comes across as painting the actual lyric and saying where you are. Sometimes it’s painting the vibe of the song and structuring the chords around it to make it haunting.

I also saw that you did a Tiny Desk Concert from home. We all know about the Tiny Desk Contest, but this seemed to be a legitimate Tiny Desk Concert you did by yourself. How did this come about?

This came during the pandemic and everyone who did a Tiny Desk during the pandemic, from home. I was asked to do this through Robin Hilton, who works at NPR. Strangely enough, he went to college in my hometown, so talk about a small world. He reviewed the record, “Pauline.” That’s how that came about. We were asked through him to do a Tiny Desk, and of course, he had to do it from home because we were in a global pandemic.

Let’s talk about living in Nashville. It’s tough. Everybody goes to Nashville to try to break through. You have had a level of success that it seems a lot of people haven’t. How hard has it been to push through? What’s the most challenging thing you’ve found about living in Nashville?

Oh my gosh, it’s so tough. Some people call it a 10-year town, but maybe it’s a 21-year town [laughs]. I will say, the most challenging and least challenging thing has been staying myself.

There are different avenues you can take in music nowadays. You can create these records that you love and stay true to yourself, and they may never see the light of day at country radio. There have been plenty of times I’ve been presented with songs that someone else said would be a hit, and I’m a writer; I can’t just sing other people’s songs. Especially if I haven’t felt them and they aren’t my true story. If that was what it was about, I wouldn’t even be an artist. So the most challenging thing has been sticking to my guns and being myself.

Releasing these records independently, you don’t always have the funds or the wherewithal to get your music heard to as many people, but the people who listen to my records and come to my shows are ones that are going to be lifelong fans and friends because they’ve been here through the beginning, and we have this common thread within us. The music is something we can share together. It’s not just something they hear and forget about.

You mentioned something about being presented with “hits” and not being able to connect with them. Modern day pop-country has strayed from traditional country music. I’m interested in your take on that. Especially with the bro-country movement, where you have a lot of guys out there singing about drinking White Claws and going into the woods. It seems like you’re doing something far deeper than that. When you look at modern-day country, is it something you connect to? Are there things you like and things you don’t like? Overall, what’s your opinion on that?

I don’t listen to it [laughs]. If that is definitely what they are about, and that’s the music that sets their soul on fire, that’s great. I just don’t feel like I fit in there. Neither do a lot of artists, women and men. I think it’s a totally separate box now. It really has done it to and for itself. I remember there was a time when someone said Lee Ann Womack wasn’t country music anymore, and she was Americana. I love Lee Ann, and I have the pleasure of knowing her, and I just thought, Lee Ann Womack is the epitome of traditional country music. She’s always stayed true to her traditional roots. So if she’s Americana now, I’m not even going to worry about genres; I’m just going to make what I’m going to make. To me, it’s country. To me, it’s Americana. To me, it’s roots. What is popular music these days?

Right. It’s even harder to press through these days, and the music industry has changed so drastically. How hard has it been to have a career in music these days?

Very hard. It continues to be hard. You’re right. Talking about the pandemic again, everyone decided to release a record. There’s so much out there, it’s really hard to know where to go and what to do. Luckily, all I know how to do is be myself, so I’m just going to keep doing that and see what happens.

Well, it’s worked thus far. Are there goals you haven’t achieved yet that you’re hoping to?

Oh, yes. So many. I was just thinking about this yesterday. Play the Ryman [Auditorium]. I’ve played the Grand Ole Opry, so I checked that off my bucket list. I’m going to release an album later this year, and that will be another huge goal, because we’ve been working on it for a couple of years. I have songwriting heroes I want to work with. I also have a podcast that’s going to be coming out later this year. I know it’s kind of the cool thing that everybody has, but this idea I’ve cultivated is going to lead to being able to connect people, and my favorite thing to do is connect people. The list goes on.

Is there more you can tell us about the podcast, or are you going to keep it secret until it’s ready to go?

I think I’m going to keep it secret. I’ll just say that it’s going to connect people from different areas of art.

The final thing I have is touring. You’re coming here to Maryland, and you’ll be out a little bit. Do you plan on spending a lot of 2023 on the road?

Well, we just had a baby. She was born mid-January, and these first shows — I’m going out with Little Big Town in April and May as well — my husband is going to play guitar with me, and we are going to bring our two daughters with us.

That’ll be fun.

Fun, and a few other words [laughs]. Crazy. Chaotic. I think I’m going to be doing some touring, but I want to be really intentional about it. By the time the new record comes out, I’ll be able to head out, and my husband will be able to stay home with the girls. So we’re looking to see how much I’ll be able to be out on the road.

Yeah, I can’t even imagine it with two little children. That’ll be quite an adventure.

We love adventures in this family. They’re already getting ready. They’re counting the days.

Colin McGuire has been in and out of bands for more than 20 years and also helps produce concerts in and around Frederick. His work has appeared in Alternative Press magazine, PopMatters and 72 Hours, among other outlets. He is convinced that the difference between being in a band and being in a romantic relationship is less than minimal. Contact him at mcguire.colin@gmail.com.

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