Ashley Mcbryde Brings Her Past Into the Present With New Single

ashley mcbryde has reintroduced a song from her early catalog with a new single, “What If We Don’t, ” a release that foregrounds the songwriter’s long-term creative relationships and personal history. The track, written in 2015 and first recorded for a 2016 indie album, returns now as part of a Makin’ Tracks rollout that emphasizes the writing room and the stories behind the music.

Ashley McBryde on 'What If We Don't'

The song began on July 8, 2015, when McBryde and co-writers Terri Jo Box and Randall Clay—self-described as the “Music Row Freaks”—wrote around a metal patio table on the back porch of a duplex in Nashville’s Belle Meade neighborhood. The writers intentionally chased a big, rock-ballad chorus to fit McBryde’s range and to stake out a rough-edged lane she felt suited her voice. A laugh about bringing “the neighborhood down” with their style captures the session’s candid tone.

They built the chorus first and then shaped subdued verses that set up a crossroads moment: two people deciding whether to turn a friendship into something more. Small decisions in the lyric—like keeping the word “weird” because it felt honest—helped shape the song’s emotional specificity. The trio’s writing approach anchored the song in concrete scenes and choices rather than broad platitudes.

Personal History Shapes The Video

The new single’s video and its emotional weight are tied to a difficult episode from McBryde’s youth. McBryde has used an intense form of therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), to work through the aftermath of a high-school car accident that killed a close friend. She continues to shed tears speaking about that friend; the new recording and visual material are presented as part of how she has processed those losses.

The song also carries the memory of one of its co-writers, who died in 2018. McBryde has said that releasing the song now is a way of processing both the relationship memories in the lyric and the personal tragedies that have shadowed the piece.

Makin' Tracks Rollout and Outlook

The single’s release is presented within a Makin’ Tracks series that highlights songs developed through close collaboration with a small circle of writers and producers. The series frames each track as part of an ongoing creative journey rather than a traditional album cycle, documenting writing sessions and the choices that shape final recordings. Musically, the arrangement of “What If We Don’t” leans on classic country elements and keeps instrumentation relatively simple so the story remains central.

For ashley mcbryde, the series format offers a way to foreground songwriting as the foundation of her work and to reintroduce material that previously had limited exposure. The song was first recorded for the 2016 indie album "Jalopies & Expensive Guitars" but did not receive significant attention at that time. The current rollout gives the track renewed context and a clearer line from its original writing session to the present recording and visual presentation.

Looking ahead, the Makin’ Tracks approach makes a clear conditional prediction: if the series continues to spotlight the writing process and personal stories, more older or underexposed material could be revisited with fresh production and narrative framing. That pathway would provide a measurable mechanism for older songs to reach new listeners without relying on a conventional album campaign.

Key takeaways:

• "What If We Don’t" was written on July 8, 2015, and first recorded for a 2016 indie album.
• The new release is tied to a Makin' Tracks rollout that spotlights songwriting and the recording process.
• Personal history, including a fatal car accident and the death of a co-writer in 2018, shapes the song and its video.