When Ashley Monroe met 2014 lyric contest winner Blair Bodine for her “dream co-write” prize in Nashville, the Warner Brothers recording artist showed up with quite a nugget of inspiration for a new song.
Monroe’s idea came in the form of a phrase that was left on her voicemail by none other than rock and roll legend Neil Young. The message went something to the effect of: “Hey Ashley. It’s Neil. Let’s write together someday. Just meet me towards sunset.”
The phrase, “meet me towards sunset,” a song title if there ever was one, greased the skids for a productive writing session, according to Bodine.
“The co-write with Ashley was one of the most inspiring sessions I’ve ever had,” Bodine said. “She is such a stellar songwriter. I have to admit, I was really nervous going into it, but she immediately put me at ease. The time flew by as we hammered out this tune together. I am still in awe at how quickly the song tumbled out and what a fun time we had.”
Later that day, Bodine played a rough cut of “Meet Me Towards Sunset” off of her phone for the American Songwriter staff, and, appropriately, it had a classic Harvest-era Neil feel to it.
Bodine, a Philadelphia native who now lives in New York after spending several years in Nashville, won the 2014 contest for her song “Lonely Pretty Things,” which you can listen to here. She also had the opportunity to demo a song at Omni Sound Studio as part of her prize package and chose to cut “Music, How I Talk To God,” with a group of Omni session players.
Watch below as Bodine cuts her demo at Omni and talks about her co-write with Monroe.
