Ashley McBryde‘s “Light On In The Kitchen” is quickly climbing up the charts. The song, from her forthcoming new album, was written by McBryde, along with Connie Harrington and Jessi Alexander, and — perhaps surprisingly — inspired by the challenges of life brought on by the pandemic.
It was Harrington who had the title of “Light On In The Kitchen,” an idea the other two writers instantly latched onto.
“We all kind of stopped,” McBryde recalls to CMT. “We decided that’s what we were going to hunt with that day. I was like, ‘Well, there’s always a light on in my mama’s kitchen, both of her sisters, both sets of grandparents, and there’s always one on in mine.’ Then we started uncovering other things like the line about local honey will keep your nose from running.”
Although their hearts were heavy at the beginning of the writing session, by the end, McBryde recalls them all crying “good tears.”
“We realized that light on in the kitchen meant so much more than we had given it credit for when we first said it,” McBryde explains. “It means, ‘I’m thinking about you.’ It means, ‘I care if you come home.’ Now, since writing the song, my mom and her sister Gloria, we say that sometimes in place of, ‘I love you,’ especially if I’m somewhere like Australia like I recently was.'”
When “Light On In The Kitchen” was released, the Grand Ole Opry member said the phrase meant so much more than its literal meaning.
“When I tell someone there’s a ‘Light On In The Kitchen’ for them, to me it means you’re thinking of them, even if they’re not coming home that night,” McBryde said at the time. “While writing this, we were all able to look back and remember the women in our lives who comforted us, gave us advice and made sure we knew we had a place to go. Writing this song showed me how necessary that simple comfort had been.”
McBryde will join Jelly Roll for some of the dates on his Backroad Baptism Tour, kicking off in July. She has yet to share a title and release date for her forthcoming new record. Find music and tour dates at AshleyMcBryde.com.