KASSI ASHTON - I Don't Wanna Dance - UMG Nashville/Interscope Records

When “Dates In Pickup Trucks” landed on the charts, Kassi Ashton instantly became an intriguing mystery to country music through a flow of sonic sound that soulfully balanced between rock and country with flashes of bluesy R&B, actively keeping the listener guessing yet enthralled.

Breaking through to huge mainstream success with last years “Drive You Out Of My Mind,” and recently striking an empowering chord with “Called Crazy,” the ACM nominated New Female Artist of the Year is on the fast track to being hailed as one of the biggest success stories of 2024.

She now returns with a next look at things still to come, “I Don’t Wanna Dance.”

Through the aura of fuzzy moodiness that’s anchored her overall vibe, the song co-written by Kassi, Oscar Charles, and Emily Landis, places Ashton’s uniquely distinct vocal in a wrap around your senses to continually pull you in deeper and deeper with each passing word as she trails through heartbreak and the vices sought to try and move on while accepting that you’re stuck on what was.

From her place atop a dusty old barstool, she paints smoky, dive bar descriptives through the opening verse that not only put you in the seat right next to her, but more so, travel her innermost emotions as she admits through her conflicting heart that the song radiating from the band has her enthusiastically tapping her foot to the beat while non-committedly telling herself that she might even get up and dance.

However, amid that fleeting moment of potentially stepping across the line into moving on, she quickly reels back into her heartbroken reality when she laments through the chorus:  

“But I don’t wanna dance, I don’t wanna dance

Take a spin around the room

Let my hair down, lost in the sound

Til my brown eyes ain’t blue

I know I could be floatin’

By the time the bar’s closing

In the arms of somebody new

But I don’t wanna dance, I don’t wanna dance

If I ain’t dancing with you”

Teetering her emotional drifts throughout the second half of the song, she confesses that while she could dance with someone new it just wouldn’t be the same, capturing the very honest juxtaposition that naturally arises whenever tasked with picking up the pieces and stepping away from the familiar comfort zone of what used to be and into you next chapter.

As much as Kassi Ashton has become a household name as one of country music’s fastest rising stars, there’s still an air of mystery about her. However, song by song, she’s expertly continuing to reveal just enough of her layers to hold us in by our heartstrings while keeping the intrigue at an all-time high as we clamor for more.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)