Carly Pearce co-wrote her latest hit, “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” with Ashley McBryde and Shane McAnally. Writing with Ashley is something she had wanted to do for a while because she says, “Ashley and I have always been fans of each other, I think because we’re both kinda cut from the same cloth. You can’t listen to somebody sing like that – and I think she’d say the same thing about me – and not think we have some of the same influences and that we are going in the same direction.”

The only other artist Carly has asked to write a song with her is Luke Combs, who co-wrote “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” and with Ashley, she says, “I didn’t know if she would ever be up for writing. It’s really the only other artist, other than Luke Combs, that I’ve ever asked to write a song with me, and we speak the same country music language.”

Fortunately, Ashley said yes, and it resulted in their top 15 and climbing hit, “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.”