Amber Lawrence: The Feel-Good Song Is Harder Than It Looks

Amber Lawrence

Amber Lawrence says her new album Suburban Cowgirl proves that feel-good country songs can carry just as much honesty and emotional truth as heavier, more introspective music.

Amber Lawrence(Supplied)

Amber Lawrence

Country music is all about writing the truth. That's something I've believed since the very beginning, and it's the thread that runs through everything I've ever made.

My last album, Living for the Highlights, leaned into heavier territory - big emotions, difficult moments, the kind of songs that sit with you. But I've always written feel-good songs too. Some pure fun, some aspirational, some just a reason to move. And every single one of them has come from a real place. That's the thing people sometimes miss - a feel-good song isn't a lesser song. It just wears its truth differently.

This new album, Suburban Cowgirl, has a lot of joy in it. At first glance, some of the songs might seem simpler. But that's because that's exactly where I am in life right now. And once you listen all the way through, you'll see the full picture - suburban life, the good times, the bits in between. It's all there.

Comeback Queens

Comeback Queens started with the title. It's something my girlfriends and I say to each other - school friends, girls I've known for 20 or 30 years - on the rare nights we actually get to go out together. When you get to the age of kids and partners and work pressures, those nights happen maybe four times a year. But when they do, we show up. We always have.

Having that strong, real narrative made it easy to convey to Melanie Dyer, who I wrote the song with. And it got cheeky and fun along the way - I got to squeeze in references to Kylie Minogue and Shania Twain, and one of my favourite lines is that we don't need to hold our hair back anymore. We all know what that's referencing. We don't do that anymore - but we absolutely did when we were young.

It's incredible how many women in their 30s, 40s and beyond have connected with that song. Because it's about them. And that's the whole point.

Something To Dance To

For Something To Dance To I went to some of the greatest writers I know - Kylie Sackley and Phil Barton, two Australians who have been living and writing in Nashville for over 20 years. And that's exactly why the song sounds effortless. Because they are effortlessly good at writing a simple song.

It doesn't have a deeper, meaningful lyric buried inside it. And I've had to make peace with that over the years - I've genuinely beaten myself up about it at times, wondering if a song like that is enough. But when you write with great writers, and when a song makes you feel something the moment you hear it, that's what it's all about. This one does that. Every single time.

Do feel-good songs get underestimated? Honestly, it depends which corner of the industry you're standing in. Some fans, some critics, some music lovers only want the deep and meaningful. Others - a lot of producers, a lot of radio, and a huge portion of fans - just want a great song that makes them feel good. I don't think either side is wrong. Whenever I hear a great song, whether it takes me on an emotional journey or just makes me want to move, my first thought is the same: I wish I'd written that.

The Final Piece of the Puzzle

I took a while to finish this album. I wasn't ready to sign off on it until it felt exactly right. The last song I wrote and recorded specifically for it was Bluebird Dream - and that was the final piece of the puzzle.

The song goes back to the very first time I visited the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, somewhere around 2003 or 2004. I lined up, put my name in a hat, got up and played a song. And then I sat and listened to all the other aspiring songwriters and aspiring stars in that room - and something shifted in me. I realised I was almost as good as everyone else there. That sounds like a small thing. It wasn't. It gave me the confidence to come back, and to keep going.

That's what the Suburban Cowgirl is really about. Not a city girl in cowboy boots. A girl from the city who took on a dream - to go out and make a living singing songs in the country genre, songs that mean something - and has been doing exactly that for 21 years. Once Bluebird Dream was done and everything clicked into place, I just thought: yes. This is exactly the album I wanted to make.

The early feedback tells me people are hearing that journey. And that means everything.

Suburban Cowgirl will be released everywhere Friday May 29