You'd be hard-pressed to find a more evocative image of rugged integrity than the cowboy - a figure so mythic, it practically walks out of a sunset with a sepia glow and a harmonica soundtrack. Yet according to Ashley McBryde, that very essence of cowboy-ness is in peril. Her song "Ain't Enough Cowboy Songs" is a plea for the return of honesty, hard work, and a kind of stoic camaraderie that feels increasingly rare in today's world. McBryde says the word "cowboy" means "integrity." "It means hard work, being where you say you are, doing what you say you're going to do," she told Apple Music. "Going the extra mile when someone needs you to carry that little bit of slack for them." Cowboys, she noted, stand with you even when it makes them look foolish. "You can say, 'You made me look stupid, but I had your back.' That's a cowboy way of living." In a world where core values can sometimes feel like they've gone the way of tumbleweeds and telegrams, McBryde's song is a gentle yet firm reminder: it's never too late to saddle up and reconnect with what matters most.

The inspiration for the introspective ballad came from a sense of something missing - not just in McBryde's life but, she observed, in the lives of practically everyone around her. "In the last several years, we've all been feeling like something was missing," she said. When McBryde sat down to write the song, it was about rediscovering core principles. "Sometimes that comes as our sense of justice and duty, maybe for some of us it's work ethic, for some of us it's a sense of community," she explained.

Co-writers Chris Harris and Patrick Savage joined McBryde in channeling this nostalgic longing into the song, crystallizing it around the cowboy as a symbol of compassionate toughness. "There's no substitute for hard work, resilience, and standing up for others," McBryde reflected. "No matter what we try to fill that void with, it never quite measures up." Chris Harris is Ashley McBryde's guitarist. He has been a long-standing member of her band and also contributes as a mandolin player and provides backup vocals for McBryde's performances.