Ash Taylor has released her new single, ‘Cigarette’, which she hopes is an immersive, fun experience for her listeners. A singer songwriter in Nashville, Taylor is contributing to the trail blazing women in country who are making noise and carving out space in the country music scene. Originally from Bakersfield, California, Taylor walks in the footsteps of some iconic country music legends and emulates that ‘Bakersfield Sound’ in her own music.
Ahead of her tour, Taylor chatted to me about the story behind her latest track, how she ended up in Nashville and how she’s gone from sleeping in her car to where she is now.
Taylor wrote ‘Cigarette’ during the pandemic after she continued to see states of disorder throughout communities across the world on her TV. Instead of feeling the weight of the global issues of 2020, Taylor remembers how her neighbourhood would open their doors and show up for each other the only way they could at the time – sitting out front, smoking a cigarette and lending an ear. “It was kind of like what tries to divide you, instead don't make it divide you, make it stronger.”
“‘Cigarette’ kind of came about because we were talking about basically the world going to shit and you're just gonna go out and watch it all burn from your front porch and smoke another cigarette because what else can you do?”
The song is a fun, upbeat number, with Taylor’s aim to deliver a message of realising that ‘you do what you can because you can't do it all’. “It may be a serious message, but the track itself is just super fun. It's super upbeat. There's a lot of really cool guitar stuff going on.” A country girl at heart, Taylor is also influenced by that southern rock sound like The Almond Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd and wanted to “musically bring in some of that inspiration and to mix country and Southern rock and have it be this really fun, upbeat thing.”
Heavily inspired by the legends that came before, Taylor uses her music to continue the country music tradition of bringing people together. “As a genre, we have a history of writing and making music for real people…using music as a tool to help people understand what’s going on.” Artists from her hometown like Merle Haggard and Buck Owens provided Taylor with inspiration in their music as they wrote about their perspective on the world.
‘Cigarette’ opens with a news report, imitating how Taylor would turn on the TV and see the devastation. “I wanted them to hear what I was talking about,” she says about the sound bite, “so I have the audio from news clips and then you hear the TV turn off and you hear the cigarette lighter light.”
Taylor’s favourite line in the song is in the first verse, ‘we might all be human, but we’re not always kind’. “We are all humankind,” she says, “yet we don’t seem to really be kind to each other a lot of the time, do we?”
Taylor joins me from her office/music room at her home in Nashville. I can see a few records and guitars on the wall behind her, and she turns to show me the extended collection down the rest of the room.
“I own 36 guitars,” she says as we laugh about her collection, “which sounds like a lot, but I promise you it’s not.” Taylor and her husband play all of the guitar parts in her music so they’re forever swapping in different ones for that specific sound. “I have my first Gibson J-45 Custom Shop Acoustic guitar behind me…I have a couple of tellies and there’s a rack of guitars.”
Across the rest of her walls and in her eyeline are things that inspire her and remind her why she does what she does – vinyl records, guitars, music equipment and awards. “When I’m sitting here working and I maybe feel discouraged or overwhelmed, it’s nice to look up and see like, you’re doing it.”
A true believer in the power of words – as is evident in her songwriting – Taylor reinforces positive manifestations in her own life and into those around her. This is echoed in her office space, too, with a picture of Dolly Parton, an American flag, posters of her heroes like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, hometown memorabilia…and a little empty nail. “I actually have an empty nail up here on the wall which I plan to put a gold record on one day.”
“I sit here and work and it’s like, this is where I’m from, this is what inspires me and here’s the words to show that I’m doing the things to move forward, and I’m looking at an empty nail so I know where I’m going…it’s my past, present and future.”
“I'm always trying just to improve. No matter how great I am at something, I could always be better.”
Music was always in Taylor’s heart, but she initially went to audio engineering school straight from high school. “I co-produce my records and I’m really involved because I love that side of it,” she says, “but I realised that me having a career in audio wasn’t what I wanted.”
Craving more creativity and ownership of projects, Taylor took to the internet to learn how to write better songs and utilise her guitar playing and joined some online communities with like-minded people. One of those people was established hit song writer, Clay Mills. “Clay basically told me; hey we think you're really talented, we think you're great, but you're never gonna get further ahead writing songs in your bedroom in Bakersfield, California.”
This prompted Taylor’s move to Nashville – a place she’d never even visited before. She spent the first year sleeping in the backseat of her car and interning for Mills but knew she was in the home of country music. Grateful to the kind, welcoming community of Nashville, Taylor was able to network and meet people in the industry and continue her passion of songwriting, eventually finding her feet as an artist. “When I started to do that, I just immediately knew being an artist is like, that's my dream job.”
In 2020, while navigating lockdown and losing their jobs in the industry, the Taylors were also fighting against hacking, identity theft and financial theft. “We lost everything,” Taylor says about the traumatic events of that year, “we lost our home, all our money, everything.” With both working multiple jobs just to get by, their tiny apartment closing in on them each night, Taylor battled thoughts of quitting music and going home to Bakersville. “My husband said, I don’t know want to hear you say that ever again,” and that was that. They rebuilt their lives, little by little, and she is now living her dream as a full-time musician. They have grafted their way from nothing back up to a life they adore living. “I'm so glad that we went through all that because it literally made us who we are today.”
Ash Taylor has more music in the pipeline for this year, including ‘Stuck On Indiana’ which she has already teased as an acoustic video. “I wrote the song because my husband, Chris, is from Indiana,” she says about the track, “and when he walked in, it was very clear that like, I'm dumb if I don't marry this guy.” It’s also the title track of her upcoming tour – the Stuck On Indiana Tour – which kicked off in Indiana on 15th August.
Stay up to date with Ash Taylor through her website.
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