Ashley McBryde's new album is compelling. So are the stories behind it.

Two years ago, she proved to the world that she was not a “Girl Goin’ Nowhere.” But for the time being, Ashley McBryde doesn’t have anywhere to go — just like the rest of us.

The acclaimed country singer and songwriter has had April 3 circled on her calendar for months. It’s the release date for “Never Will,” her second major-label album. That hasn’t changed, but other plans surrounding the release — tour dates, TV bookings and other appearances — have evaporated as the coronavirus pandemic takes hold in the U.S.

For now, “Never Will” will be doing the traveling for McBryde: streaming into the homes of her fans, some of whom will have been quarantined for weeks. In a recent interview with The Tennessean, we asked if she thought her new music might help those stuck indoors.

“That's such a cool question, because mostly what I've been asked is, 'What are you afraid of most about trying to release a record when everybody's quarantined? How is it going to affect your record?’”

“Music is the one thing that cannot be diminished, not by being quarantined, not by being indoors or outdoors. Music cannot be destroyed. And so when a lot of us aren't working, you're going to be ready to take in a new record. I got Brandy Clark's new record this last week, and have not stopped listening to it. Hopefully, we'll be another one of those records that you'll turn to, to listen to over and over.”

That’s a safe bet. “Never Will” is filled with potent, personal storytelling, as McBryde wrestles with grief, uncertainty, loneliness, rage, jealousy and passion.

And if you get the chance to ask her about the inspiration behind those songs, her answers are just as compelling. Here’s what she said about five of the album’s most powerful tracks.

'Hang In There Girl'

“I know too well that look in her eyes/ I’ve been right there at the end of that drive/ Hang in there girl”

“I lived just outside of Watertown (Tennessee) for about three years. You turn off of Highway 70 and you turn on to Highway 267. And about half a mile past is one of those little bridges with a driveway. There was a young lady standing outside. I'm going to describe her to you, but in no way, do I feel any of this is a bad thing, because I grew up the same way.

"You can tell that her haircuts are done at home on the porch, and those sweats that she was wearing are not hers. Everything about it is ill-fitted, and she's down there checking the mail on this mailbox that really should have been retired years ago. She was just kicking the rocks. She wasn't soccer-kicking the rocks, she was just toeing the rocks around.

"… I remembered being 14, and thinking 'There has got to be more to life than what I'm doing right now.' I really wanted to stop and tell her, 'Hi, you don't know me, but a couple of years from now, you're going to have a job, and a car, and the world is going to get much bigger.' But of course, that would have been inappropriate and creepy. So I wrote it in a song instead.”

'Stone'

“I’m just now finding out now that you’re gone/ We were cut from the same stone”

“You'll see Nicolette Hayford's name right next to mine a ton on this record. We had gotten together one morning early in the year just to write ... I said, 'I'd really like to talk about our dead brothers club thing we have in common.'

"David (Hayford’s brother) had passed away about four years ago, and now Clay's (McBryde’s brother) been gone for a year. At the time, I was really angry, and I wanted to write about it from an anger standpoint. Because my brother did commit suicide, and that does cause a lot of anger in your family members. Nicolette was not going to be satisfied with me writing it from an anger standpoint. They were both Army veterans that died in very, very different ways. Her suggestion was, 'Let's just keep talking, and go outside and have a cigarette.'

"And while I was complaining and bitching and being angry about my brother's death, she said something off-the-cuff, and it made me laugh. I cackled. It's almost like a bark, this specific laugh, and it's Clay's exact laugh. I just looked at her and said, 'Oh my God. I sound like Clay when I laugh.' Then, I start crying, and she said, 'The reason you're so angry is because you're so hurt. And you're so hurt because you didn't pay attention to how much you two are alike, until he was gone.' Then I'm crying, and now there's an exposed nerve in the room. And she just looks at me and goes, 'Grab your guitar.'

"This is kind of how Nicolette and I write. We piss each other off, or make each other cry, and then we jump on it like a dog on a bone. Sometimes it's a rough ride, but the result was pretty therapeutic, and hopefully it'll be therapeutic for somebody else, too."

'Martha Divine'

“You put your hands on the wrong damn man this time… And it ain’t murder if I bury you alive”

“One of my dad's girlfriends, as a teenager, I wanted to push her down a flight of stairs. I just did. Most cheating songs are told from the point of view of the person cheating, the person that is the other woman, or the person that is being cheated on. So we had an opportunity here to write about it from the point of view of the daughter.

"It is a little tongue-in-cheek, and it is a little dark, but it's also a little true. But hopefully, anybody who's ever wanted to hit the other woman in the head with a shovel will refrain from doing that, (laughs) and will just listen to the song."

'Shut Up Sheila'

“We don’t sing ‘Amazing Grace’/ We don’t read from the bible/ We just go about letting go in our own way”

"I was raised in a really strict Church of Christ family … When I lost Clay, I was at Clay's service, and my head was not at 'Amazing Grace.' My head was not at praying. Mine was just angry, and I wanted to take a shot, so I did, and I pissed everybody in that building off by doing that. And I just looked at my father, who was shaking his head in disapproval. And I said, 'And what, old man? I will deal with this the way I deal with it.'

"So when it came time to make the record, and we were looking at, 'Can this song fit?' And I thought, 'Absolutely.' Because there's somebody in your family that you have wanted to tell to shut up. And maybe you haven't had the chance to, but Nicolette Hayford had the balls to write it, and I had the good sense to cut it."

'Sparrow'

“You wouldn’t trade nothin’ for the way it feels to fly/ It ain’t fair though/ How you miss the ground when you’re out here in the sky”

“My arms were blank until I got two sparrows, sketched-style, tattooed to my arms. One was facing away, and one was facing home. Nicolette Hayford had asked, 'Why are your sparrows facing different directions?' And I said, 'Because one is always leaving, and one is always trying to get back home.’

"Of course, it's a well-known fact that sparrows can fly all over the world and still find where they came from. It's me, and it's the guys (in my band), and it's anybody who really travels for a living.

"... Our families want us to be successful and to have dreams and aspirations that we want to accomplish, but they also miss us terribly. And what nobody warned me about was that I'd be sitting in a plane, having been alone for weeks just getting planes and visiting radio stations. Being alone a ton of the time, and I thought, 'Man, I'm higher, success-wise, than I've ever been, and I'm the loneliest I have ever been.' It's a trade, and thank God nobody warns you, because you might not do it if they told you what the trade-off is."