In "Austin," Dasha tells the story of a guy who lets her down, promising to move with her from Austin to Los Angeles, but reneging on the deal. She goes anyway, and he stays behind, drunk and washed up. Dasha had never been to Austin when she wrote the song, but the guy was real, and so was the feeling behind it. The dude actually lived in Nashville, and Dasha was splitting time between that city and Los Angeles. He refused to commit to their relationship, so Dasha decided to take him down in song. "It's a made-up storyline around those emotions," she told Zach Sang on Amazon Music. "I was never moving to LA with this guy from Austin - that was more of like the storyline around my anger about being put off in this relationship and all these bulls--t excuses. That's where 'Did your boots stop working? Did your truck break down?' came from, because he'd tell me the most bulls--t excuses all the time. So I was like, 'Let's make fun of this dude and make him feel like an idiot.'"
Dasha teamed up with songwriters Adam Wendler and Cheyenne Rose Arnspiger, along with producer Travis Heidelman to create this empowering track. "Once we kind of got the idea and the chords going, the song flew out in less than an hour," Dasha told Billboard. "It just felt natural and everyone I showed that song to after that session was just like, 'This is going to be a really big song.' I never doubted it once and no one else did and we were right."
"Austin" isn't your typical heartbreak ballad. Forget the slow tempo and melancholic mood often associated with the genre. This song is a feisty anthem, propelled by handclaps, a folksy fiddle, and a boot-stomping rhythm perfect for line dancing. Its infectious groove echoes the energy of Beyoncé's "Texas Hold 'Em."
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