Ashley McBryde was having the worst day ever when she wrote "A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega." McBryde and co-writers Jesse Rice and Nicolette Hayford decided to put their pencils down for the day. Songwriting was going nowhere so they decided to just get to know each other. That was when the idea for McBryde's latest hit came about.
McBryde explains the story in a recent video. Jesse Rice began talking about his real worst day ever. He was leaving Atlanta when his car broke down forcing him to pull off into the small town of Dahlonega. While waiting for the town truck Rice went into a bar called The Crimson Moon.
Courtesy of Crimson Moon Venue
The Crimson Moon, for those who know it, is anything but a dive bar, but owner Dana LaChance is okay with the alliteration. The full-service restaurant and live music venue has been operating since 2006. Since then the bar has had its fair share of big names come through. One of those names, Shawn Mullins, happened to be playing there the day Rice showed up.
While listening to Mullins sing, Rice met a girl who he later would end up dating for three years before marrying her. That story made McBryde rethink the type of day she was having. As she describes it, "that's what you do with the worst day ever. You flip it on its back. You raise your glass."
LaChance's vision for her bar was always to showcase the latest talent.
"From the very beginning, I wanted it to be a place where people could launch their careers," LaChance told Forsyth County News.
In some way you could say LaChance has done just that. "A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega" is getting lots of airplay on Sirius XM's The Highway. Also, McBryde's recent performance of the song at LakeShake received accolades from Miranda Lambert.
Who knows, maybe it's only a matter of time before McBryde makes her way to Dahlonega to perform the song on the stage of the place that inspired it.
