Story Behind the Song: Dee White Feat. Ashley McBryde, ‘Road That Goes Both Ways’

Ashley McBryde has championed Dee White since early in his career, bringing the rising artist out on the road as opening support for her Girl Going Nowhere Tour. "This guy has a voice like if Dwight Yoakam and Ronnie Milsap had a baby. I love everything about him," McBryde raved in advance of that 2018 run. "This is a voice that country music has been missing, and we have to have it."

Before White joined McBryde's tour, the pair duetted on "Road That Goes Both Ways," a song from White's debut album, Southern Gentleman. Read on to learn how the song came to be, and how collaborating McBryde changed the course of the young singer's career.

It was me, [Dan] Auerbach and Joe Allen. Joe came in with that beautiful melody that you hear on the record, and then we just sat down and wrote it. I guess after a couple hours, and a lot of storytelling, we realized we had written a duet.

When it came time to record, when we were tracking and stuff, I guess Dan's manager, who also manages Ashley and myself -- but did not manage me at the time -- and Ashley came down to Dan's studio. I don't think she had met any of them, and I of course had not met her. We went in and tracked the live vocal together, and it was just -- she was doing that thing that you hear, and she just nailed it. It was just something else.

Once I ended up affiliating with the same management, and it came time for her to do her first solo headlining tour, she was nice enough to take me out with her. Which was awesome. You learn so much.

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