Ashley Cooke Talks “Word Vomiting” Her Ugly Truths on Her Self-Titled Sophomore Album (Exclusive)

Ashley Cooke isn’t holding anything back. The country singer’s self-titled sophomore album is a bold and brave exploration of love and loss, one that doesn’t hold back on the painful details.

“When I looked at the whole project top down, I realized that it was just a compilation of my brain in love, and honest truths and realizations in my 20s, and all of that,” Cooke told American Songwriter. It just kind of felt like a word vomit of who I am as a person.”

As both an artist and a person, Cooke said that she considers herself “beautifully chaotic,” a sentiment that is clear on the album.

“It takes you on a journey of falling in love, falling out of love, patterns that you’re in,” she said. “It’s kind of thematically all about love and breakups, a lot of deep realizations in your patterns and relationships.”

Ashley Cooke Discusses Standout Tracks on Her Latest LP

The album opens with “If I’m Being Honest,” a track that Cooke always wanted as the introduction to the LP.

“I knew I wanted that to be the first song on the record for a long time. It’s the most brutal, honest [song]. The way that we wrote it was just in my living room at night,” she said. “Two of my favorite co-writers, bottle of wine. It just, like, word vomit, blunt, honest truths.”

“Those lyrics are the cold, hard, real situation,” Cooke added. “There are real truths in it that are just so detailed, that are kind of terrifying to put out. I think that the [fans are] gonna feel the honesty in it.”

Sonically, the “acoustic and raw” track leans into a “songwriter, organic storyteller” vibe that Cooke hasn’t previously explored. It’s not the only song on the album that bypasses Cooke’s typical mid-tempo, easy-listening style, which is exhibited on her “chill and flirty and fun” hit, “Baby Blues.”

There’s also “Dance Around It,” a track that has “a little more of a free, sexual ’70s type, synth-y, disco feel to it.” On “Sleepless in Seattle,” meanwhile, Cooke took cues from an unexpected source.

“I’m going to regret saying this, but you know ‘Cotton Eye Joe’?” she asked with a laugh. “It has that similar kind of beat to it.”

Overall, Cooke said, “there’s a little bit of a different flavor for some of these songs, which I love.”

“Obviously, you want a project to feel cohesive—and it does, just because it’s my writing,” she said, “but I feel like sonically, I did kind of play around a little bit in a way that’s exciting to me.”

Ashley Cooke on the Last-Minute Addition That Perfectly Closed the Album

Choosing the closing track for the album was a decision that was equally as important to Cooke as the selection of the opening song. Cooke wound up selecting “The Girl Who Cried Wolf” to fill the slot at the very last minute.

“I was in a relationship during the time that I wrote a lot of these songs and went in the studio and cut them all. That relationship ended right when the album was done,” she said. “It was a pretty interesting breakup, so I went into a room with some of my favorite co-writers. I just word vomited exactly how I felt, and the patterns that I see myself going back to, and how I don’t even recognize myself sometimes in these situations, and am just frustrated with myself for going back to something that wasn’t good for me.”

Cooke fell in love with the demo and hopped on a call with her label to ask them if she could go back in the studio one more time.

“I called the label and I was like, ‘Hey, I know the album’s done, but a lot of this album speaks about the person I was in the relationship. I don’t really resonate with anymore, because it’s over and I’m frustrated and I’m mad and all of that. Can I put this as the last song on record? I feel like I need to put something that lets people know that it’s done and this is where I’m at,’” she said. “So they were like, ‘Yeah’… I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’”

Cooke got back in the studio and recut the track. Now she’s glad she did.

“The way that it ends, it kind of leaves you on a cliffhanger of like, ‘Did she go back? Is she still with him?’” she said. “I love that, because I’ve noticed myself in relationships in the past going back to something one too many times. It just felt really self-realized and also sad, which is kind of how I ended the process of this record.”

Ashely Cooke Is Hitting the Road

Cooke is gearing up to celebrate the release of the album with her Baby Blues Tour. The trek which will kick off Sept. 17 in Cleveland, Ohio.

“A big priority for me with this tour is just to make it feel like an experience that when you look back at pictures or videos of it, you know ‘Oh my gosh, that was the Baby Blues Tour,’” she said. “I just want it to feel like fans watch us elevate. They watch us do something a little different every night.”

Ashley Cooke is out now.

Photos by Patrick Tracy