Ashley Monroe Surprise Releases New Album ‘Dear Nashville’

Ashley Monroe has dropped a surprise new album – Dear Nashville, an eight-song concept record co-produced and co-written with collaborator Luke Laird, released on Friday, March 27th.

The album confronts Ashley Monroe’s 23-year love affair with Nashville, Tennessee – a relationship she describes as equal parts devotion and heartbreak.

The project grew out of a single writing session that started with raw, unfiltered emotion. “I had a writing session on the books with Luke and I’d woken up that morning with a storm in my heart, like, ‘My gosh, have I done this all for nothing?'” Monroe recalls.

“When I got to Luke’s house that day, I knew I had to address my hurt feelings and get it out of my system. I told him the idea of ‘I Hate Nashville’ and he loved it. That song put everything into motion. We felt the window of all the muses open, and decided that I’m going to say what I feel and make it a whole project.”

It is a candid admission from an artist who has spent nearly a quarter of a century building her career in Music City – writing songs, making records, and earning the deep respect of her peers – while frequently feeling overlooked by the very industry she has given so much to.

Dear Nashville puts those conflicted, complicated feelings front and centre.

The central question of the album, as Monroe framed it in an open letter to her hometown last week, is this: “If someone is hurting us, and we don’t let them know, isn’t that on us?” It is a sentiment that cuts through the album’s concept, positioning Dear Nashville as both a reckoning and, ultimately, an act of love.

That push and pull is immediately apparent in ‘I Hate Nashville’, the album’s opening salvo and lead single.

Despite its provocative title, the track is anything but a rejection of the genre that shaped her. “Country music is the reason I’m alive,” Ashley Monroe declares on the song – a line that reframes the album’s apparent antagonism as something far more tender.

Luke Laird, who co-wrote and co-produced all eight tracks on the record, speaks to exactly that tension. “This album started with Ashley bringing the title, ‘I Hate Nashville’, to the room one day,” he explains.

“The music is what brings most songwriters to this town – but when it comes to the business, that’s when people can get burned out.

So Ashley and I talked that day about our love for country music, the songs and the people – we had such a good day talking about all of our favourite Nashville memories and what led us both here.”

Laird is also full of praise for Monroe as a complete artist. “I love how honest Ashley is in her writing and just how pure her singing is. She really is the triple threat: artist, songwriter, and producer. We had so much fun making this record. No rules… just what felt right.”

While Dear Nashville is firmly rooted in Ashley Monroe’s professional relationship with the city, the album simultaneously operates as a romantic record – one that taps into the timeless emotional territory of unrequited love. The two themes mirror each other throughout, with Monroe’s longing for recognition from Nashville mapping onto a broader, more universal ache. “The bottom line of the album,” she says, “is I wish you loved me like I love you.”

Dear Nashville is out now on all streaming platforms. The official video for ‘I Hate Nashville’ is available to watch now.

Ashley Monroe ‘Dear Nashville’ Album Tracklist:

1. I Hate Nashville
2. Gettin’ Out Of Hand
3. What Are We?
4. Steal
5. Haunted
6. Dreaming
7. Having It Bad
8. Quittin’