A backstory for a song can add a lot… or nothing at all. But this one makes so much sense for the tune.
When Ashley McBryde first dropped her album, Lindeville, I immediately had questions on how “Gospel Night At The Strip Club” came to life.
The title raised questions alone, but then the lyrics brought even more questions to my mind. The elaborate storytelling and background of the characters in the tune made me wonder how McBryde drew inspiration for it.
We all know McBryde is an extremely talented songwriter, but even the best need to draw their inspiration from somewhere.
The album overall drew inspiration from her time singing in dive bars and bike gang stops before she made it big, and thanks to McBryde’s most recent YouTube video, we finally hear the backstory for the tune.
“I used to play this bar in North Little Rock called Renos. I used to play once a month; I would play 10-2, 10-1 just depending on how many people were at the bar at the time.
This guy was there, he was in a white shirt, and not a clean white shirt, like a worked-in all-day white shirt and some cargo pants that were the same white creamy color… it looks like he paints houses. About twenty till ten, he comes up and says, ‘What time do you start, honey?’
And I said, ‘About twenty minutes.’ He then pulls out a $100 bill and says, ‘How about this to start right now.'”
That is just a taste of the wild story she lays down from that night.
The character that was the man who begged her to start early was a character of his own… similar to someone who would consider a strip club a holy place.
The story fades into the start of the story-like song, which McBryde does flawlessly.
The acoustic versions of the song brings it into a new light, with McBryde singing all the lyrics versus splitting them with Benjy Davis.
Simply put… it’s just great. And the story… even greater.
