Chords for OnMilwaukee Interview with Ashley McBryde

They look extra legit, you know?
Sweet.
_ [A] Alright, I just have a couple questions while I'm with you.
You grew up on some serious rock music with mom and dad, listening to Van Van.
Yes.
[E] How did you swing into country?
I actually grew up playing bluegrass and [A] listening to country music and was really lucky that
there was an oldies station that we could get, I talk about it in the song Radio Land,
[C#] that we could get in the [G#] next town over.
And I just thought it was just regular rock music, of course now it's considered oldies,
but [Bm] it was everything, it was Beatles, [B] Springsteen, it was Joplin, it was Hendrix, and so I was
[E] really, from a very early age, bluegrass, country, and rock were all equal.
_ _ _ [B] _
What are the two most important things you want people to know? _
_ Wow.
Well, [E] every time I leave a place, I want people to know, I want people to say that my crew
is a group of nice people that work really hard and we're easy to work with.
_ _ You know what, I want them to know that all my tattoos have stories.
I didn't just randomly go and spin a wheel [Em] and get [E] tattoos.
I'm being told now, by [B] the comment sections and everything, oh, that's way too many tattoos
for country music, and I think that's hilarious.
So, yeah, you can be country and have tattoos.
_ Good to know.
_ It's safe to say that you're not a girl going nowhere any longer, but it's also safe to
say that women in country music are still suffering the effects of pre-film style and gay comments.
Yeah.
And that you've heard a fair number of no's in your career.
What's been your toughest [A] rejection and what did you learn from it?
My toughest rejection was there was a writer in [E] town.
I was playing a writer's night that [F#] was his.
He was opening a publishing company, and he came up and stood right next to me, and I
was watching this other songwriter, [E] and he said, what do you want to be?
And I said, I want to be a songwriter.
[B] He said, I'm opening a publishing company, I need a girl writer.
I said, okay.
Do you want to be an artist or do you want to be a writer?
[E] I want to be both.
I want to be Lucinda Williams.
And he looked at me and he goes, hmm, I can't make you into what I need you to be.
And passed on the deal.
And thank God, because I didn't have to sacrifice anything about myself to be able to write songs.
Yeah.
That was a tough one.
And it was a writer I really respected.
And we've made amends since then.
_ _ _ What do you say to people who [Cm] think that country music is dying and it only is changing?
[Em] _
_ [Dm] Um, [G] it's kind of silly.
Country music has always been there and it's always going to be there.
And we change [A] a little bit what we look like, we change a [Em] little bit what we sound like.
And we're kind of [G] becoming this blurred genre of sub-genres.
And for a while, [E] we all resisted it.
I resisted it too as a [Em] songwriter being like, I want to write songs.
Well, you don't [E] have to.
We build a bigger table, we make room for everybody.
Because [Em] even though we're considered on the rock side of things, _ _ [E] the way we do country music
wouldn't [Em] have as much impact if there wasn't [D] pop country music, if there wasn't [Bm] bare bones [A#] roots country too.
So I think [Em] it's all really important.
It's not dying.
It's not going to [Cm] go anywhere.
It's just [G] going to change what we look like and sound like.
_ _ _ Who [C] made you a fan girl and who are your influences?
[Bm] Oh, influences is really, really [D] hard.
Because [Bm] every artist is just an [C] amalgamation of every song they've ever heard.
But I [Bm] always reach for things like, I [D] grew up listening to Patti [B] Loveless, Pam Tillis, Trisha [C] Yearwood,
Mark Chestnut, Alan Jackson, [G] like that was a really good time in [D] country music.
But then also like [Em] Bruce Springsteen and [Cm] Lucinda Williams, huge influence, [G] Twine On A Jug.
Who made you a fan girl?
[D] I [Em] cried in April when I got [C] to meet Reba McEntire.
[E] _ And I fan girl out every time I see Wynonna too, even though she's so approachable [Em] and so sweet.
[C] And Reba was too.
And I shook [G] her hand and I was all shaky.
She said, [A#] I was wondering when I was going to meet [Em] you.
And I said, don't you dare [C] introduce yourself right now.
[G] And so I stood there and I always [E] say the most awkward [Em] things when I get nervous.
And [Cm]
so we were at dinner [G] and she left a couple of tables over.
The words come out of my [Em] mouth.
I don't mean to bother you while you're [A] snouts in the trough.
I just wanted to say hello.
And then I was like, did I just say [D] that?
It was the most Arkansan thing I could have possibly [Em] done.
But she took it [Cm] really well.
She was really nice.
[G] _ And last question.
[F#m] Your first headlining tour starts in [Em] September.
Yeah.
[C] Congratulations.
What are your goals beyond [G] the tour and what's next?
_ [A] _
During the tour, I [Em] have one goal.
I get an [Cm] opener.
His name is D.
White.
And [G] I get to be good to him [Dm] the way so many artists were [G] good to me on Club Tues.
And I'm really [C] excited about that.
So beyond that, it's [G] almost time to start working on the second [D] record,
which we've already [Em] got a ton of songs picked out.
[Cm] And that's the hardest part is watching [G] these songs duke it out [D] with each other.
Even just picking a single like Radio [Em] Land was duking it out with American Scandal.
No matter what song wins, we're going to be excited about it.
But [A] it's a painful and [Em] really beautiful process.
[Cm] So I'm ready to get back in the studio with Jay.
[G]
We cut [D] this record in two days.
Two [Em] nights.
Yeah, two full nights from about 6 p [C].m. to about 4 a.m. both [G] times.
And so I'm excited to try seven [Em] days and see what happens when we make a record that way.
That's so cool.
That's all I've got.
[E] Cool.
I'm totally fangirling right now.
If it helps, I'm always nervous.
[G] _ Thank you so much.
No worries.