The first time I saw Ashley McBryde perform, it was a little acoustic thing for people in the country music industry, and she told stories between songs, and from her sense of humor alone, I was 100% positive we should be best friends. And I told her so. And so far, no restraining order has been issued, so I’m pretty sure she’s on board with my plan.

But she’s not just delightfully sarcastic and strong. She’s also crazy talented.  It’s rare for me to listen to many albums more than once, but ever since Ashley’s Girl Goin’ Nowhere album came out, I’ve had it on repeat. It doesn’t burn out. It doesn’t get old. It’s just GOOD.

Unfortunately, because Ashley’s a (gasp!) woman, that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s going to have a hit song on your regular old country radio station. There’s this weird thing happening, and it’s been happening for years, where the old guys programming those radio stations have passed down to the new guys programming those radio stations the “knowledge” that “women don’t like to hear women on the radio.” Are you rolling your eyes as hard as I am right now? Have you wondered why there are only 4 women you can think of who are currently making country music that you might hear on a country radio station? It’s because these program directors are telling you what you are supposed to like, and that’s men.

In fact, my friend Cam told me (and tweeted) that one of those guys even said something along the lines of, “women want to hear good-looking men on the radio so they can pretend that they’re their boyfriends.” Uh. Say what?

It’s with all this in mind, that we’ve decided to do a little somethin’ somethin’ at Slacker Radio, and it’s starting Monday. I’m not going to give away all the details now, but I will tell you that not only will we be highlighting as much of the amazing female talent in Nashville as we can, we will also be telling their stories.  It’s stuff like those radio programmers above who put women in the position of thinking they have to compete with one another, when in reality, when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. So, we’re now on a mission to help more women in country music find success. I hope you’ll join us for that! Check out Slacker Radio on Monday and you won’t be able to miss what I’m talking about.

And in the meantime, here’s just one example of why I have a girl crush on Ashley McBryde.