Ashley Monroe shares her new single “Bitter Swisher Sweet” featuring Brittney Spencer, the latest offering from her upcoming album Tennessee Lightning, due out August 8. Accompanied by a video with footage of the two artists collaborating in the studio, the intoxicating new song revels in the highs and lows of escaping through self-medication.
About the new song, Monroe says: “The day Logan Wall, Emily Landis, and I wrote this song, we were just chatting before we started and Logan said the phrase ‘Bitter Swisher Sweet.’ I don’t even really remember the context, but we all looked at each other and knew it was a title we should chase. I had a little groove and bass thing going (a sick beat, as I call them) that gave us our vibe. We wrote it in less than an hour, and I’ve dug it ever since.”
“This song makes me think of a specific season of my early teenage years, when my older brother and his friends sometimes allowed me to tag along while they cruised Gatlinburg or some random East Tennessee backroads. Whilst they smoked Swisher Sweets, I sipped Zimas in the back seat, and we would just get lost in whatever music we had blasting and forget we had a care in the world. We had lost our dad a couple years earlier, and when I look back on that time in my life, I think how those ‘young and dumb’ seasons are never really wasted. In a lot of ways, they keep us alive… so get high, get low, light up, come on, the night is young.”
On working with Brittney Spencer: “When Gena [Johnson] and I were recording it, we kept saying, ‘I wish Brittney Spencer would sing on this!’ She is a dear friend of both of ours, and we are just blown away by her voice and her spirit. We’re so lucky she said yes!”
Spencer added, “I only have one video of my busking days down on Broadway. It’s a video of me playing ‘Hell on Heels.’ Ashley, her golden voice and magnetic lyricism shine so beautifully on ‘Bitter Swisher Sweet,’ and the whole album really. Getting to sing with her is an actual dream come true every time it happens. She’s the pop twang queen of my heart.”
“Bitter Swisher Sweet” follows “The Touch” featuring Marty Stuart, a smoldering love song that was hailed by The New York Times as “pristine.” Recorded in the wake of Monroe’s transformative bout with cancer, Tennessee Lightning documents her remarkable journey as a celebration of life, love and the healing power of music. In addition to Spencer and Stuart, the 17-song collection also includes contributions from special guests T Bone Burnett, Waylon Payne, Brendan Benson, Butch Walker, Karen Fairchild and Armand Hutton.
Co-produced by Monroe with GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer Gena Johnson (John Prine, Jason Isbell), Tennessee Lightning is a rich, multifaceted meditation on identity, purpose, and meaning from an artist who’s learned to see herself — and the world around her — in a whole new light following a life-altering diagnosis. “When I got diagnosed with lymphoma and started my treatment, I stopped writing, I stopped hearing melodies, I stopped thinking about songs at all,” Monroe recalls. For six months, she focused almost exclusively on her recovery and her family as she underwent a grueling regimen of injections and transfusions.
“When I finally went into remission, I could feel the life and the music start flowing in my veins again,” she explains. “It was like a flood, just this rush of inspiration.” Along with that inspiration came a newfound clarity and gratitude, as well as a vision for this new album.
“I feel like I’ve emerged from these last few years with a pretty profound perspective shift. I’ve learned to be more in the moment, to appreciate what’s right in front of me and enjoy every second I get to spend doing what I love with the people I care about.”
The album also features previously released tracks “There You Are,” “Hot Rod Pipe Dream” and “Risen Road.” The 3x GRAMMY nominee’s recent work has been lauded by American Songwriter, CMT, Stereogum and People Magazine, who interviewed her about this musical “fresh start.” Tennessee Lightning follows Monroe’s 2021 album Rosegold, which received widespread acclaim from the Nashville Scene, No Depression, Vulture, Paste Magazine, Garden & Gun, Stereogum and many more.
On July 25, Monroe will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of her GRAMMY-nominated 2015 album The Blade with a one-night-only show at Nashville’s The Basement East, where she will perform the record in its entirety. In August, she’ll be co-headlining a run of shows with Fancy Hagood across Europe and the United Kingdom. See below for a full list of dates, or visit ashleymonroe.com for more information.
