Ashley Monroe is a pillar of Nashville’s country music scene, earning well-deserved acclaim for her work as a songwriter, solo artist, and one third of the beloved supergroup Pistol Annies. But Monroe’s road hasn’t always been an easy one to travel; that music scene is also an industry, one that too often values commercial success over carefully honed artistry. The native Tennessean confronts the city that let her chase her dreams and also let her down, charting her highs and lows across eight vulnerable songs. Co-produced and co-written with Music Row mainstay Luke Laird (Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves), Dear Nashville expands upon an open letter Monroe posted online days before dropping the album, outlining her musical journey while posing an important question: “If someone is hurting us, and we don’t let them know, isn’t that on us?” Accordingly, Monroe pulls no punches, opening the project with a song called “I Hate Nashville.” That title is a bit deceptive, as Monroe goes on to detail reasons she initially fell in love with the city, like “Paul Franklin playin’ steel” (a fun little Easter egg, given that Franklin plays pedal steel on the track) and the “skyline shining.” But Monroe also divorces country music from the city that incubates it, untangling her love for the genre from its geographical roots. That kind of nuance permeates another standout, “Steal,” which reads like a missive from a jilted ex-lover, though this time the object of Monroe’s ire is a place, not a person. While undoubtedly a declaration from Monroe, Dear Nashville is also a reminder of her formidable talents, both as a writer who can dig into such intricacies with precision and heart and as an agile, dynamic vocalist who can glide from top to bottom, and back again.