Kassi Ashton Explores Growth, Grit & ‘The Blooms’ Through Deluxe Album Release [Interview]

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Kassi Ashton. Photo: Robby Klein.

There’s something unmistakably raw and real about Kassi Ashton. Whether she’s opening her heart on stage or spinning stories in a writing room, Ashton isn’t here to just entertain—she’s here to connect. With today’s (April 25) release of the deluxe edition of her debut album Made From the Dirt: The Blooms, the Missouri-native singer-songwriter proves that artistry isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about truth, pain, joy and everything that blossoms in between.

The original version of the album introduced listeners to the textured layers of Ashton’s life and sound, but with The Blooms, she digs even deeper.

“If we’re going to talk about the root and the process,” Ashton explains to MusicRow, “Then we’re allowed to talk about the fruit of the labor. We’re allowed to talk about what comes at the end.”

Ashton’s rise hit a major turning point with the release of “Drive You Out of My Mind,” a standout track from the original project that became a fan favorite almost instantly.

“That was the first song ever that every night I went out, more and more people were singing,” she says, remembering her time on tour with Old Dominion. “It was wild to me. People stood up out of their chairs, dancing and singing the entire chorus. That was the first time I noticed a song make a difference in real time.”

The album as a whole felt like her first true introduction. Since September, Ashton has noticed a shift in how people connected with her work. It had become a full story that resonated on a deeper level.

Among the tracks that fans have gravitated to most deeply, “Called Crazy” has become another standout.

“When I sing it, still to this day—even if a girl’s never heard of me or never heard the song—by the hook, they’re screaming. ‘Never been called crazy by a man who hasn’t come back for more.’  That line just hits people. Every time.”

Other tracks like “The Straw,” a long-awaited release for Ashton’s die-hard fans, and the emotional centerpiece “Made From the Dirt” have also sparked powerful, personal reactions. Ashton expresses how the latter garners the most DMs from fans, reflecting how the song has influenced their life and how that has fulfilled her songwriter dreams.

When it comes to her creative process, Ashton keeps it grounded in the real world, drawing from her own life, whether its things she says, hears or experiences. Her car is the spot where she comes up with a lot of melodies and lyrics, often bringing along a voice memo of the new ideas into writing rooms.

Among her frequent collaborators are respected names like Luke Laird, Oscar Charles, Jason Nix and Natalie Hemby. And it’s this collaborative energy that helped shape not just Made From the Dirt but its newly expanded deluxe edition.

Ashton says the deluxe edition wasn’t an afterthought, it was always part of the vision.

“The original album wasn’t supposed to be 10 songs. It was supposed to be 13,” she explains. “We cut and sequenced 13 songs, but I had to leave some off. The Blooms brings those songs back and fills out the story. It’s not the extra picture, it’s the full picture.”

Among the new tracks is the Parker McCollum duet “Sounds Like Something I’d Say,” which has already garnered a lot of fan attention through its previous release. Ashton wrote the song seven years ago, originally not as a duet. After hearing McCollum singing the tune backstage at the Ryman Auditorium randomly one day, Ashton learned his publisher had sent him the track.Then at last year’s CRS, McCollum sang the song again, and kept asking why Ashton had not cut it yet.

“I told him, ‘because the album isn’t out yet. Give me a minute,’” she says with a laugh, recalling their interaction. “I said to him ‘if you love it so much, why don’t you cut it with me?’ So, he was like ‘okay let’s do it.’ And then it really sealed the deal.” It was then after Ashton opened up for McCollum at Red Rocks where the two discovered how well they sang together while singing McCollum’s “Burn It Down” that Ashton re-wrote part of the second verse for in order to be a duet.

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Also on the new release is the nostalgic, universally relatable tune “All Over You,” which Ashton calls the sister song to her “I Don’t Go Back.” Ashton captures the magic of the tune sounding good anywhere, whether that be in a car or a field, daytime or nighttime—just that classically good feeling.

“Ride or Die Radio” was originally inspired by a rejected radio station name, but took an a deeper meaning in the writers’ room when Ashton began conceptualizing the “play listing” of her life.

“That’s what I am, in a way. I’m an artist, I’m a songwriter, but I’m play listing my own song. I’m trying to be the DJ to their life or to their mood or their situation, and I adore that song. It feels like the same lane as the title track.”

The powerful “When I’m Gone” was born from a lighter engraving Ashton saw one day on Pinterest, which said, “When I die, bury me upside down so my haters can kiss my ass.” Ashton immediately fell in love with the idea, and wrote the sentimental, freeing track. She has been playing it at shows for two years now, and has already seen the connection it is bringing to her fans.

Perhaps the most personal and vulnerable of the deluxe tracks comes from “Bar Fight,” a song about mental health, but in Ashton’s own terms.

“It’s about mental health, but not in the ‘I’m sad’ way people expect,” she shares. “My head isn’t just dark, it’s chaotic. It’s a bar fight. Glass on the floor, rage in the room. It’s messy, and it’s real.”

With this new release, Ashton is hopeful for listeners to feel even more connected, to her and to themselves.

“I want people to hear this and go, ‘We got her, but now we really get her.’ And maybe through that, they get themselves a little more too. Every song is a bridge to the next place.”

With grit, grace and a voice that’s unmistakably her own, Ashton is proving that what’s made from the dirt can bloom beautifully.

Madison Hahnen
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