In her ‘baby blue’ era, Ashley Cooke shares what happens when you finally stop asking the room who you should be.
For Ashley Cooke, baby blue is more than the palette of a new album. It’s the color of intuition, memory, and learning to trust the person she’s been all along.
There is something almost ‘true blue’ about this chapter of her life: less reinvention, more recognition.
Ashley’s self-titled sophomore album arrives at a moment when her career is expanding quickly, but the growth she talks about most isn’t necessarily the visible kind. She calls the record a “coming-of-age record disguised as a relationship album” – one shaped by recognizing her own patterns, listening more closely to her instincts, and learning that knowing how something might end doesn’t always mean avoiding the experience altogether.
Maybe that’s all growing up really is after all.
Speaking with Ashley, she talks about the colors she assigns to memory, the beauty she’s finding in ordinary things, and what she hopes to carry with her long after this baby blue chapter fades into the next.
01 / THE COLOR OF BECOMING
I’ve always thought of blue as a color that refuses to mean just one thing. It belongs to wide-open skies and deep water; melancholy and peace; nostalgia and hope. When baby blue first came to you, did it arrive as a lyric or as a feeling?
You nailed it on the head. Originally, it was just because of the song title, but as I thought about it more, I realized how much the color actually does represent this era of my life.
It’s juxtaposed; it’s sad and it’s playful; it’s youthful and it’s mature… just like this record, it encompasses quite a few emotions in one and felt like the perfect color to lean into because of it.
If this chapter is baby blue, I’m curious about the chapters that came before it. When you think about your childhood, first heartbreak, or first No. 1, do those memories have colors attached to them too?
Absolutely. My childhood was green – always my favorite color, and it makes me think of wild, nature, unbridled, organic.
First heartbreak is a deep, dark blue.
First number one is a tan/sand color – partially because that was the color of that era for me, but also because it felt like I was just getting started painting my canvas and understanding how to be loud with color. It was simplistic and natural.
So much of who we become through those seasons takes shape quietly in the background, while we’re busy living through everything else. When you look back, what was actually changing beneath the surface?
So much was changing. My own self-realization of my patterns in relationships and just life in general, which you hear quite a bit about in the project. I also gained so much confidence in my own intuition on this record.
Listening back, it’s like I knew how it would all pan out and still chose to experience it.
I’ve gained a lot of awareness, confidence, and trust in my own intuition.
02 / THE PINTEREST BOARD OF HER LIFE
Eventually, all that inner change began showing up on the outside. Ocean backdrops, faded denim, turquoise stones, sun-washed photographs: look around Ashley’s world lately and blue is difficult to miss. But what initially looks like careful world-building turns out to be something much less calculated.
Most of it was already there.
Your world feels bathed in blue these days. But the more you describe it, the less it sounds like an aesthetic you created for an album and the more it sounds like a world you’ve been collecting your entire life – does that ring true?
It has always, always been there. I was raised on the coasts near the water between California and Florida. My whole family has crystal blue eyes, my room as a kid was painted baby blue, my first young love birthday gift was a tiny Tiffany blue pendant, I grew up going to the beach with clear blue water every week… it’s always been there.
I just allowed myself to lean into it more for my self-titled record.
Where else has blue been sneaking into your life lately – the objects you keep close, your home, the little details we don’t necessarily get to see?
I’ve recently become very obsessed with blue kyanite, turquoise, and other blue stones as my everyday jewelry. I’ve also subconsciously worn a lot more blue these days.
What else are you drawn to right now?
I’ve always been a beach-loving, wanna be y2k Billabong model hahaha. Living in Nashville for the last 10 years, I obviously haven’t been able to lean into that as much, but I find myself ordering vintage Billabong surf hoodies way more often now. It’s just part of who I am and the Pinterest board of my life.
- Where’s the body of water that feels most like home? Deerfield Beach, FL.
- Favorite thing hanging in your closet right now? I’m usually a very simple tank and ripped/worn jeans kinda girl, but lately I’ve been getting into vintage finds. There’s this incredible vintage baby blue fringe Dolce & Gabbana runway fall/winter ‘03 collection top that my stylist found, and I’m obsessed with it.
- One blue object in your home you’d never part with? A vintage turquoise necklace I found at a boutique in Colorado Springs!
- Where do you go when you need a little more sky? A park. Nashville has some of the best.
- What feels most like freedom these days? Sunshine, a bikini, my back porch, my dog, a good book, and nothing on the schedule for the day.
And then, of course, there’s denim. Every great pair of jeans eventually carries a life of its own – road trips, late nights, coffee stains, airport gates, concerts, heartbreaks. Very Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. What does your own denim archive look like at this point?
I’m such a big Levi’s lover, always. I have so many pairs of shorts (new and vintage), jeans (baggy, skinny, old, new), skirts, skorts… everything. There’s just something so classic about denim that will never go out of style. I could live in jeans forever and ever.
03 / THE VIEW FROM HERE
There is a funny thing that seems to happen as life gets bigger: sometimes the things that feel most precious get smaller.
Ashley is heading toward a world tour and another album release, but ask her what freedom looks like and she doesn’t describe a stage. It’s an empty day on the back porch. Ask about beauty and it’s freckles, fireflies, flowers blooming on a backyard tree.
So, before looking too far ahead, I asked her to take a snapshot of life exactly as it is right now.
- Something ordinary that suddenly feels beautiful in this season? Natural sun freckles, flowers on my backyard tree, fireflies, and hugs from my parents.
- If you could preserve one moment from this year like a photograph, what would it be? Singing “Summer Nights” live with Rascal Flatts for the first time this summer. My absolute favorite band growing up.
- What’s a small ritual that’s become part of this chapter? Manifesting! Journaling has always been in my routine, but scripting/manifesting is so powerful and has become the best way for me to get aligned with what I want.
- What’s the best view you’ve had this year? My band and I have started climbing on the top of our bus (yes like, the very top haha) and recapping the show, watching the sun go down, sipping Surfsides… that view may be of a muddy field next to the venue we’re playing or it could be a stunning sunset over the ocean (that’s the beauty of touring), but it’s always my favorite part of the day.
04 / TRUE BLUE
Maybe becoming yourself isn’t always about discovering something new; sometimes it’s recognizing what has been there all along.
The intuition she didn’t always listen to, the answer she may have known before she was ready to follow it… which leaves only one question.
Years from now, when the tour is over and this chapter has become another color in your memory, what do you hope “baby blue” will remind you of?
I hope it reminds me to allow myself to just be exactly who I am.
To trust myself.
A lot of my life and career, I spent as a “yes” person. I was always surveying the room and asking everyone else who/what they thought I should be. But this color and era and project remind me that I have all of those answers within my own mind and my own gut.
I hope it reminds me to turn inward and upward to God when making decisions, because it’s right there for me to know, and I’m happiest when I trust myself first.
To keep up with Ashley, follow her on Instagram @theashleycooke and listen to her music on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Music.
Credits:
Written by Carly Long | @bycarlylong
Photography by Allister Ann | @allister_ann
Shoot location: @torres_vintage
