Kassi Ashton, 29, brings a whole new attitude to country music. The California, Missouri singer/songwriter touched down with a string of critically acclaimed tracks released by UMG Nashville in conjunction with Interscope Records. Named on Ones to Watch lists by publications like Huffington Post and The Tennessean as well as radio personality Bobby Bones.
With a little bit of rock, a hell of a lot of soul, and a throwback R&B groove, Ashton has crash-landed on country radio. “Dates In Pickup Trucks,” her irresistible debut radio single dropped in February. Speaking about the song’s playfulness, she adds, “I want it to show that there are many sides to me.” The simmering new song, it turns out, has a surprising origin story: an uncharacteristically giddy phone call between Ashton and her grandmother. One of nine children and known for her take-no-prisoners attitude, the singer was shocked when, one day, her elder fell into a fit of giggles on the other end of the line. “She’s like, ‘Me and your grandpa went on a date last night,’” Ashton recalls. “‘I made dinner, we packed it up in the truck, and we drove around all the roads we hadn’t seen in a long time.’”
Ashton got to thinking about the nights she stepped out under the stars in her own pickup, back in her one-stoplight hometown of California, Missouri. (“You can gravel road for hours, where I come from” she quips.)
Ashton brought the idea into a co-writing session with Luke Laird, who, while having served as the pen behind massive hits by Thomas Rhett, Eric Church, and Carrie Underwood, is also, as Ashton explains affectionately, the “other half of my creative brain,” and David Garcia. Initially, her collaborators both balked at what they considered a kitschy title. “They’re like, ‘This is not the girl I know!’” Ashton says, laughing.
Within the day, the three had twisted a simple memory shared between generations into something they couldn’t turn off. “We were joking about how if Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg got high in a Chevy pickup truck and rode around, this is what they would listen to,” says Ashton. “If I were to see a song called ‘Dates in Pickup Trucks’, I would go, ugh,” she jokes. “But this is how I grew up, and we used the idea in way that felt fresh.”
“I’ve lived real life,” Ashton explains. “I’ve had shit happen to me.” Raised between two homes. Bullying in school. Cancer. “I’m telling the truth.” It’s become the thread that ties each of her releases, which dance between modern and classic influences, together. “There’s a gritty, soulful bottom end to my music,” she says. Ashton debuted the cut live not two days later at a showcase in Nashville and felt the room react immediately. It wasn’t a fluke. The same thing happened each night on the GIRL tour later that year. After every show, her DMs would fill with fans telling her they loved “the truck song”.
Now, Ashton files music—hers and that of others—into two camps, regardless of their genre or mood. “I think about bing-bing music and boom-boom music,” she says. The latter has weight. Eric Church. Rihanna. Adele. They all register, deep in your core. Or, as Ashton says, “They make your gut pulse.” “Dates In Pickup Trucks,” with its visceral imagery, sweet-as-summer melody, and intoxicating rhythm certainly goes boom.
Kassi's all over country radio right now with her catchy 'Drive You Out Of My Mind'.
Get tickets for the NO BAD VIBES tour now !!
07 Sep 27 LIVE Nashville, TN
09 Sep KNCI's Country in the Park 2 Sacramento, CA
16 Sep NashFest 757 Norfolk, VA
20 Sep Lexington Opera House Lexington, KY
21 Sep TD Garden Boston, MA
22 Sep Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville, CT
23 Sep UBS Arena Belmont Park, NY
Comments