Watch Ashley Monroe Croon at the ‘Devil’ at Sun Studio

Ashley Monroe recorded her newest album, The Blade, in Nashville. Even so, the singer set up shop at Sun Studio during a recent trip to Memphis, where she tracked live versions of several songs in the same room that once housed her idols. 

In the video below, Monroe records a percussion-free version of “If the Devil Don’t Want Me,” driving the song forward with help from her acoustic guitar and an upright bassist. Guitarist Johnny Duke, formerly of Little Big Town’s road band, and fiddler Eamon McLoughlin round out the band, whose members play the Blade ballad with less bounce and more woozy, weary restraint. The result is a song that finds Monroe, who co-wrote “If the Devil Don’t Want Me” with Chris Stapleton and Jessi Alexander, looking for comfort in the darkest of places.

Following next week’s appearance at the Grammy Awards, where The Blade is nominated for Best Country Album, Monroe will begin prepping for a short overseas tour that includes shows in London, Dublin and Glasgow.