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\n\t\u201cWriting and releasing this song now is how I\u2019ve processed it the best,\u201d McBryde notes. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat If We Don\u2019t\u201d was penned on July 8, 2015, by the self-described \u201cMusic Row Freaks,\u201d the cowriting trio of McBryde, Terri Jo Box and Randall Clay, around a metal patio table with an umbrella on the brick-and-mortar back porch at a duplex that Box rented at the time in Nashville\u2019s toney Belle Meade district. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe definitely brought the neighborhood down with our red necks,\u201d Box says with a laugh. <\/p>\n
\n\tOn that particular day, McBryde announced on her arrival that she needed a \u201cbig rock-ballad chorus,\u201d Box recalls. It was a conscious effort by McBryde to find her lane in country music at a time when that rough-edged lane wasn\u2019t acknowledged. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI love the things that were represented sonically at the time,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t have my Pat Benatar that I could turn to.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThey had that sound in mind as they addressed the frustrations that both McBryde and Box were experiencing in their love lives, where they tended to get involved with friends who turned out to be less-than-ideal partners. \u201cAshley and I were both in situationships, which we both pretty much stayed in back then,\u201d Box says.<\/p>\n
\n\tThey wrote a power chorus first, sculpting it to McBryde\u2019s formidable range, with a lyric that contemplated two people turning a friendship into something more. When they wrote the more subdued verses, they set up the scenario in the opening frame by picturing two people calling it a night, about to go their separate ways. And in verse two, they considered the results: \u201cthings gettin\u2019 weird if it don\u2019t work out.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI remember asking her and Randall, \u2018Is it weird to say \u201cweird\u201d in a song?\u2019\u201d Box recalls. \u201cAshley was like, \u2018I love it. Let\u2019s just say it, because that\u2019s what it is: weird.\u2019\u201d In the big picture, \u201cWhat If We Don\u2019t\u201d is all about crossroads.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat moment of making the decision to take the risk or not take the risk,\u201d says McBryde, \u201cis immediately followed up by, \u2018Wow, I get to live with these consequences,\u2019 no matter what they are.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tMcBryde first recorded \u201cWhat If We Don\u2019t\u201d for her 2016 indie album Jalopies & Expensive Guitars. The song didn\u2019t come out quite the way she imagined it, and it never received any significant exposure. <\/p>\n
\n\tSubsequently, Clay died in October 2018 from pneumonia in Pensacola, Fla., as a hurricane descended upon the city. McBryde always harbored regrets that \u201cWhat If We Don\u2019t\u201d had not received the best possible opportunity, and as she prepped for her next album, she began inserting it into her live set, working it up with her road band, Deadhorse. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe were out in support of Cody Johnson, so we were trying out new arrangements of a song that has been around a long time in front of 20,000 people a night,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat a great barometer to go, \u2018Well, that worked\u2019 or \u2018Well, that didn\u2019t work.\u2019\u201d She enlisted Brothers Osborne guitarist John Osborne to produce the next album, and he appreciated the work they\u2019d already put in before they set foot in his Pinebox Studio on March 6, 2025.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey really do their homework, and they come in with arrangements,\u201d he says. \u201cI love that, because I can focus on the nitty gritty from the word go.\u201d Box attended the session and was impressed with how deep he went into that nitty gritty.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cJohn Osborne could go around to every instrument and show what he wanted to hear,\u201d she says. \u201cHe could get behind the drums, and then he played the guitar, and he [was] just cool and laid back about everything. He really let Ashley be Ashley.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tMcBryde sang live with Deadhorse on every take, knowing that any nuance might unlock something new in the band. While drummer Quinn Hill is behind them in live settings, the musicians were able to make him the visual focal point in the studio. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m watching Quinn play drums like he\u2019s digging a ditch,\u201d McBryde says, \u201cand I\u2019m watching Caleb Hooper\u2019s hair fall into his face \u2014 he can\u2019t even see his bass \u2014 and it doesn\u2019t matter; his fingers are just flying all over it. And [guitarist] Matt Helmkamp over here ripping solos as though it\u2019s as easy as carrying a bag of chips.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThey treated \u201cWhat If We Don\u2019t\u201d like a 1980s power ballad, allowing McBryde to take on a Joan Jett\/Heart\/Pat Benatar persona. \u201cThere isn\u2019t a production big enough that she can\u2019t absolutely compete with ease,\u201d Osborne says, \u201cso I went really hard with it, and she was all about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen the band had the framework in place, Osborne overdubbed additional instrumentation, providing some extra guitar parts and thickening the sound with mini-Moog bass and a mellotron that laid synth tones underneath much of the production. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIn the bridge, I put in some really cool pizzicato stabs,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up playing classical music, and I didn\u2019t appreciate it when I was younger, but as an adult, I love listening to classical music, so I love using sometimes classical rhythms and counterpoints and approaches to sections to create energy.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tEveryone on the team agreed that \u201cWhat If We Don\u2019t\u201d should be the next single, which reaffirms the friendship with Clay. \u201cWe feel him around all the time,\u201d Box says. \u201cIt barely feels like he\u2019s not here for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe accompanying video is built roughly around the loss of McBryde\u2019s highschool friend, and it\u2019s notable that the girl has a boyfriend but expresses some sexual tension with McBryde\u2019s character. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s definitely by design, to leave that up to the viewer who the young person is most interested in because at that time, especially at that age group, you\u2019re not sure,\u201d she says. \u201cA lot of the times you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my gosh, I really enjoy hanging out with these two, and I can\u2019t tell exactly.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tWarner Records Nashville released \u201cWhat If We Don\u2019t\u201d to country radio via PlayMPE on Jan. 22, assigning an official add date of Feb. 23. <\/p>\n
\n\tIt builds on several different friendships, incorporates the harder edge McBryde always envisioned for it, and allows her to pour herself into some strong emotions in a way that formal therapy never quite provided as she heals her past. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI may have had a heartache or two when I wrote it,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t have the tools to fully process everything that I was packing into that until now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The past is dead. That self-help mantra is a great reminder not to let old regrets hold us back. But it\u2019s complicated by an old William Faulkner quote: \u201cThe past is never dead. It\u2019s not even past.\u201d Several chunks of Ashley McBryde\u2019s past are unearthed in her latest single, \u201cWhat If We Don\u2019t,\u201d a song […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2251855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[309228],"class_list":["post-2309164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-genre-country"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ashley-McBryde-Parker-McCollum-More.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2309164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2309165,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309164\/revisions\/2309165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2251855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2309164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2309164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2309164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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