Nashville veteran singer-songwriter Ashland Craft talks her new album “Dive Bar Beauty Queen,” meshing rock, country sounds into ‘honest’ music.
If Cody Johnson, Ashley McBryde, or Lainey Wilson are among your recent country favorites, then 28-year-old South Carolina native Ashland Craft is already earning praise from the artists you admire most.
The critically acclaimed and road-weary artist recently spoke with The Tennessean about her latest, May-released album, “Dive Bar Beauty Queen.”
Her 2021 debut album, “Travelin’ Kind,” was released by Big Loud Records. Her latest comes as a part of the last 18 months she has spent signed to Nashville indie upstart label Leo33.
“I make music that’s unapologetically real, unmasked and a case of ‘What you see is what you get,'” Craft said. “I’m a passionate performer with a honky-tonk background who wants to share my story with blue-collar, hard-working country music fans who love George Jones, rock ‘n’ roll and lettin’ loose.”
Ashland Craft and ‘Dive Bar Beauty Queen’
“Over the past couple of years, I’ve transformed into someone thankful that my persistent love of music and desire to sing is more proudly and wholeheartedly (reflected in) my work than ever,” Craft said.
Craft’s work is not meant for the instant gratification of pop acclaim. Instead, it rewards fans who attend live concerts and purchase vinyl records instead of skipping through a 50-track streaming playlist until something catches their ear.
Her voice slides with ease into the cracks and crevices that kick drums and deep grooves open in neotraditional-style country compositions. Sure, she can belt a hit like Nashville’s best, but her vocal instrument works best as part of a broader ensemble.
On “Dive Bar Beauty Queen,” that voice benefits from stellar songwriting on the gospel-aimed “Momma Don’t Pray Like She Used To,” bluesy “Lie a Little” and hook-driven love ballad “Morning Person.” They all reflect where Craft has grown as a songwriter alongside her talented contemporaries like Trannie Anderson, Faren Rachels, Ben Stennis, Kasey Tyndall and Dallas Wilson.
“Instead of puttin’ her through hell / Every night it’s still Amen / Cause that’s what Mommas do / Oh, but Momma don’t pray like she used to,” sings Craft in an example of straightforward, honest and powerfully delivered lyricism.
Emotion powers Craft’s songwriting process
Also key to Craft’s continuing success is realizing that the life she lived as a teenager while playing in the house band at Wendell’s Dippin’ Branch bar in Anderson, South Carolina, is the same as what’s currently championed in the award-winning material of artists like her Leo33 labelmate Zach Top.
True to form, she wrote her album’s title single when she was 19. Back then, she was already “fully immersed” in a life where she spent daylight hours asleep and lived for the “gigging and witching hours” between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m..
Craft now considers that track’s “rock sound that tips its hat to country music” the North Star of what guides the rest of her latest album and her career moving forward.
“Showing up as a creatively unique, energetic and way less self-critical person who’s most comfortable performing in a bar extends to every part of who I am,” said Craft, laughing about where love and romance fit in the creative scope of “Dive Bar Beauty Queen.”
“Ever since witnessing my parents struggle with it growing up, love has always been a serious thing for me,” Craft said.
Emotions power Craft’s songwriting.
“Whether it’s love, or anything else, I want to be able to start trusting in the experiences as not just things I can write about like, ‘blah blah blah,'” she said. “Instead, I want them to be not just the most honest, but the best ones I’ve ever had.”
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