New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Ashley Monroe has released yet another stunning track from her forthcoming Warner Bros./Warner
Music Nashville album, "The Blade."
No one does heartbreak and longing like Monroe. The new track, "Dixie," released today exclusively at SouthernLiving.com, displays all of the 28-year-old singer-songwriter's many powers, from the immediacy of her songwriting to the way her East Tennessee soprano can cut right through your heart.
"'Dixie' came from Justin Davis in Striking Matches. He had that idea and we were at some show in the dressing room and he played it for me and I fell in love with it," Monroe tells Southern Living. "I've always loved those old melodies like that, which sound like they were written way back in the day...I related to it, and when I sing it, I get mad. I definitely love the south and I'm never leaving. It's like, 'I'll be damned, you're not going to take me down."
"I think I was like a 90-year-old man who worked on trains, because some of my earliest songs sound like that. I related to it, and when I sing it, I get mad inside. When I sang it for some radio people, I wondered in my mind, 'Is this about I'm going to get what I deserve?' That's where it goes, because I definitely love the south and I'm never leaving. It's like, 'I'll be damned, you're not going to take me down.'"
"Dixie" is the fourth song Monroe has previewed from her second Warner Bros. album, out July 24. Monroe recently played "Dixie" live for Live Nation Channel on Yahoo Screen along with other album tracks "I Buried Your Love Alive," "If the Devil Don't Want Me" and "The Blade." Monroe also has released "Bombshell" from the new album, teaming with furniture and décor designer Wayfair.com and interior designer Brad Ramsey to reimagine her Nashville writer's room.
That's just a small piece of all the attention Monroe, a member of the country music super group Pistol Annies, has gotten surrounding the release of "The Blade," produced by
Vince Gill and Justin Niebank. NPR calls her "Dolly Parton's rightful heir" and Rolling Stone says "
The Blade" is "destined to be one of year's top albums." RS made this assertion after seeing Monroe perform an album preview show during CMA
Music Festival, another triumphant moment for the singer.
Fans can pre-order "
The Blade" through iTunes and AshleyMonroe.com. Pre-orders will include instant downloads of the title track, first single "On to Something Good," "I Buried Your Love Alive" and now "Dixie." Monroe also plans to release one last track, "The Weight of the Load" before The Blade album hits stores.
Monroe will celebrate the release of the new LP with an appearance on NBC's "The
Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on July 27, along with several other release week appearances.
