Ashley Cooke Announces Debut Album, ‘Shot in the Dark’, During Opry Performance

After dropping a series of teasers and snippets, country music prodigy Ashley Cooke has announced her debut album, shot in the dark, which will be released on Friday, July 21.

To celebrate the announcement, three new songs from the upcoming record, ‘tastes like’, ‘mean girl’ with Colbie Caillat and the title-track, will be made available this Friday, June 23.

The Floridian singer-songwriter revealed the exciting news during this week's appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, where she also debuted the album's closing track, ‘state i'm in’.

As she stepped into the hallowed Opry circle, Cooke shared the inspiration behind the new record, “The last year of my life has been crazy and wonderful in so many ways, but I think the next year might be even better…It's been full of bucket list moments for me… I made my Opry debut, signed my first deals, went on tours with my heroes, and lived a lot of life in the moments in between. This album is about all of that - and it's about the magic that can come if you really take risks in life and love”.

She went on to express her pride at being able to unveil shot in the dark at the iconic Nashville venue, “It's a huge honor to announce my debut album at a place that means so much to me. So, without further ado on July 21st, I'll release my first album, shot in the dark, and I can't wait for each of you to hear it. Thank you to everyone who helped get me here, and thank you for making me feel so safe to take a shot in the dark”.

Cooke's eagerly awaited new project will include recently teased songs such as ‘enough to leave’ and ‘your place’, along with previously released fan-favourites, ‘it's been a year’, ‘getting into’, ‘running back’, ‘back in the saddle’, ‘dirt on ‘em’ and the Brett Young-assisted ‘never til now’.

Along with Brett Young and Colbie Caillat, shot in the dark will feature Nate Smith on ‘see you around’ and Jackson Dean on ‘what are you on fire about’, the latter of which was co-written by Lainey Wilson.

Many continue to champion Ashley Cooke as a future country star, a status that was certainly consolidated during her electrifying C2C Festival performance earlier in the year, as well as on her 2023 tour dates in support of her ‘never til now’ collaborator, Brett Young.

Given the calibre of songs that Ashley Cooke has been previewing in recent months, it seems shot in the dark could well be the album to launch the fast-emerging artist into country's upper echelons.

For Ashley Cooke's full shot in the dark tracklist, see below:

1. ‘tastes like’ (Ashley Cooke, Jordan Minton, Emily Weisband, Corey Crowder)

2. ‘it's been a year’ (Ashley Cooke, Will Weatherly, Brett Tyler)

3. ‘see you around’ (feat. Nate Smith) (Ashley Cooke, Brett Tyler, Will Bundy)

4. ‘shot in the dark’ (Ashley Cooke, Jordan Minton, Emily Weisband, Corey Crowder)

5. ‘moving on with grace’ (Ashley Cooke, Rocky Block, Jake Mitchell)

6. ‘getting into’ (Ashley Cooke, Emily Weisband, Will Weatherly)

7. ‘enough to leave’ (Ashley Cooke, Matt Roy, Lauren Weintraub)

8. ‘i almost do’ (Ashley Cooke, Trevor Rosen, Josh Osborne)

9. ‘mean girl’ (feat. Colbie Caillat) (Ashley Cooke, Colbie Caillat, Nicolle Galyon, Jimmy Robbins)

10. ‘running back’ (Ashley Cooke, Emily Weisband, Will Weatherly)

11. ‘good thing going’ (Ashley Cooke, Matt Dragstrem, Brett Tyler, Geoff Warburton)

12. ‘next to you’ (Ashley Cooke)

13. ‘good to be back’ (Ashley Cooke, Hunter Phelps, Jameson Rodgers, Alysa Vanderheym)

14. ‘what are you on fire about’ (feat. Jackson Dean) (Lainey Wilson, Jason Nix, Luke Dick)

15. ‘say no more’ (Devin Dawson, Donovan Woods, Travis Wood)

16. ‘tryin' to love you’ (Ashley Cooke, Hillary Lindsey, Chase McGill, Jimmy Robbins)

17. ‘back in the saddle’ (Josh Kerr, Jordan Reynolds, Jordan Minton)

18. ‘your place’ (Ashley Cooke, Jordan Minton, Mark Trussell)

19. ‘dirt on 'em’ (Ashley Cooke, Jessi Alexander, Aysa Vanderheym)

20. ‘build a bridge’ (Sasha Sloan, Ryan Hurd, Geoff Warburton, Henry Agincourt Allen)

21. ‘get you’ (Ashley Cooke, Jacob Durrett, John Byron)

22. ‘never til now’ (feat. Brett Young) (Ashley Cooke, Matt Roy)

23. ‘gonna get’ (Ashley Cooke, Sasha Sloan, Blake Pendergrass, David Garcia)

24. ‘state i'm in’ (Ashley Cooke, Emily Weisband, Jordan Reynolds)

For more on Ashley Cooke, see below: