Catching Up with Lindsay Ell

I caught up with Lindsay Ell on the red carpet at the BMI Country Awards last week in Nashville. We talked about the excitement of getting a number one single, “What Happens in a Small Town,” with Brantley Gilbert, and how she’s moving forward with a new album produced by Dann Huff (Rascal Flatts, Dan + Shay, Faith Hill).

Here’s the conversation. 

Your vocal performance on the new single, “I Don’t Love You,” just knocked me out. How did you get that emotion out in the studio? 

Thank you so much. I am so grateful for Dann Huff. As a producer, he's somebody I've always wanted to work with since I moved to Nashville —  as a guitar player and as a producer. And the fact that he was able to capture, I guess, a lot of vulnerable emotion that “I Don’t Love You” sort of brings out and represents — I'm just grateful. I'm grateful that he was able to push me as a singer and as a guitar player to get that performance. And as long as it sounds honest, and as long as people can listen to it and be like, “I know what that feels like, I've been there before,” then I've done my job.

And you’re coming off a number one single with Brantley Gilbert on “What Happens in Small Town.” Congratulations! I'm so happy that you have a number one song. So where were you when you got the news?

You're not the only one. I feel so excited and happy and just grateful. I've wanted this moment ever since I was a little girl. I feel like I've gone to bed since I was 10 years old praying for this. And Saturday night, we were playing a show and I walk off stage and I walk into the dressing room and my whole band is going like “Number one! Number one!” and I break down crying and it's just such an emotional thing. We put so much blood, sweat and tears into these goals that we set for ourselves. And when you finally reach them, even if it's over 10 years, almost 15 years for me, into it, it means a lot.

On this new record, how much guitar playing are you doing, as much as solos?

We'll definitely have a band and we'll track all together. And we've had Derek Wells who's one of my favorite players in town, and Dann pickup guitars, but I'm totally in there. I'm playing every solo and I'm just so grateful that Dann is like, you do your thing, this needs to showcase you as an artist. And he inspires me a lot.