Miss Avry | Brave Enough to Break Her Own Heart

Miss Avry was raised in Memphis where grit and grind wasn’t taught it was lived. Her family’s legacy helped shape soul music, and before she could even read, she was already singing.

In this deeply personal conversation with her mama Lovey Edge, she shares the roots behind her music, the heartbreak that changed her life, and the impossible choice between love and the calling she couldn’t ignore.

Inside this episode:

• The family legacy that helped shape soul music
• Why Memphis made her tough
• How music became her first love
• The surprising double meaning behind her song “Play Boy”
• Why heartbreak songs hit harder than love songs
• The relationship she lost because she chose her music and why she’d make the same choice again

At Life Inside Home, we believe our homes write the first draft of who we become. This conversation is proof that the streets you grow up on, the songs playing through the speakers, and the people who raise you can echo through a lifetime.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I'm so excited to be sitting down with my very own daughter today. Avery. But she goes by Miss Avery in the music world. And tell us how you're doing today, Miss Avery. How I'm doing today? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Doing pretty good. I'm sh I work um every week I work at 9 to 5. I sell apartments in the big city and uh pay my rent that way. I'm very blessed to have a job. But any other moment, any other second I have to porn in my music, I'd I spend all my time doing that. So I'm excited. I'm working girl, but you know what? Hard work pays off. You just gotta be consistent.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

We're gonna dig a lot deeper than that today. Okay, so first of all, I want to tell a quick story of how she got the name Miss Avery, because a lot of people come in contact and they go, that's such an interesting artist name. I've never heard anyone have that name. How did that come about? And it really started from the moment that she was in diapers and I'd pick her up in the nursery after I'd work, and every time I'd pick her up, someone would say, Miss Avery's ready to go. And this happened across daycares, caregivers. It's not something that I gave to her. It just sort of came along with her. And if you've known her any amount of time, you'll understand she's definitely Miss Avery. So I'm really glad to sit down with you because I get to hear from your perspective. This is not a rapid question thing that we usually do every day, although we have a pretty deep relationship. I want to know for you when you think of your music, when did you think that your music crossed over from something that you just did every single day since you were speaking two and three years old and you were singing? When did it cross from something that you just did to you being an artist?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

That's a really good question. Um I always did music. That was always something that was a part of who I was. Um and for a long time, growing up in, you know, performance and musical theater and um writing songs at 14 and you know, doing choir and having solos, all that stuff, like, you know, I was always just trying to compete and be the best because that's kind of where how they set you up for that. Um, you know, and it wasn't really individual artistic expression, it was more so who just sounds the best. Um and so growing up, you're competing and you kind of throw away the things that God gave you that are unique to your voice and and your craft. And so um I took a break for music for about four years, um, redefined who I am, aside from music, uh, studied fashion design, styled other artists, and things like that was really cool. Um but when I came back to it and I just started singing in the way that I was created to sing, I think that's when it really hit me. I've always been an artist, but I think that that's when I really tapped into my artistry as, you know, the individual individual, unique person that God created me to be. Um I think that the best thing you could ever do as an artist is stay true to who you are.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

So I think that's awesome. One of the things I remember you telling me, and as a mom, it hurt me to hear that you were scared to step into that artistry for a while because you saw that backside of it where the artists become a product and so much of their story is lost that people don't actually see or hear who the person is behind the um behind the curtain. Yeah. It really led me to want to dive more into artists themselves. We're in the city of creatives. There's well over 45,000 um creatives in the city of Nashville. I would say we probably are one of the largest centers and hubs for creatives in the world. Every time I meet an artist, I I'm able to hear a little bit more about who they are. And it draws me in because you begin to hear that from their music, and I've seen that from you. When you think of where you came from, you were born in Jackson, Tennessee, but you were raised in Memphis. What do you remember most about that?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

That's tough. Uh what I remember most about Jackson, um we lived in like a little suburban area. There was a big old cotton field behind our house, and I used to run and go pick cotton just for fun. And um, I never really got the farm life like you got, mom, and I always wanted that um because it felt more home to me. Um, but I was I from five to eighteen grew up in Memphis, so Memphis made me who I am, but home is always gonna be Jackson. It's just that perfect midway point between Memphis and Nashville. I just call myself an I-40 baby because I'd I hadn't traveled that road too much. But um, but yeah, Jackson reminds me of my grandparents and and you know, primitive years when you're first growing up. And then Memphis, you know, Memphis was its own entity. It was it was tough. Memphis ain't easy, but it made me who I am. And I think that as a Tennesseean, I earned my stripes for Memphis. And we did our grit. We did your grit and your grand in Memphis. Yeah, for sure. I mean, my family, um, my great-great uncle Jim Stewart started Stocks Records, and um the legacy behind that didn't really hit me until I got a little bit older. Um, you hear that growing up, you hear your family talk about it. Um, and you kind of always wonder why you're drawn to more soul music and RB and um the greats like Otis Redding and Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald. And that's what I was drawn more toward growing up with music, and then also was raised on country music and grew up. I went to high school out in Needs, Tennessee, and we had a truck line, and you know, everybody was bringing their bucks they killed that morning in the back. Like it was country, and uh so it was kind of the best of both worlds, and and I think that that really shows up in my music and the way that I write is you know, the way I say things and a lot of ain't no nothens and things like that. It it's all country and it's country color, and that's who I am. I'm a Tennessean born and raised, but I think the depth of my voice shows that soul side.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Well, I think you were it was baptism by fire because since you've been a little girl, you've been hearing uh George Strait streamed next to Nally, streamed next to Otis Writing for sure on a Friday night.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

There was never one thing a Lambert, like it was it was never one thing, and I think that that was really cool. Like you and Dad were um like 23 when you had me. And so I was young growing up with my parents, and or they were young and I was growing up with them. We were all kind of growing up together. Um, but it was cool because their music that they listened to, like, I mean, you were a dancer mom, so you you had that hip-hop thing locked down, and like we'd go dance outside and like I just I probably exposed a little bit of that too early when you were five. It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

I mean, you have good dance moves.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

I can I could share that with you. That's so funny. I mean, I it's just music is music, and there's all different, you know, slices of the pie. And I think what's really cool about this kind of new generation of music is with you know the benefit of streaming, it's not as um revenue-based, you don't make as much money in streaming as you know, they used to in the 90s, selling CDs and stuff like that. But um, what it has created for young individuals who are taking to music as a young person, they're influenced by so many different genres, they're influenced by so many different people. Whereas, like, I believe back in the day, like if your parents knew about that person and they bought the CD, like that's how you heard about somebody. Um but nowadays we're just exposed to so many really cool different sounds, and I think that the new wave of music, all these new you know, creators and curators and artists are coming out and blending all the pieces that they heard growing up.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

One thing I love about just even country music in general, because that's always going to be at the end of the day, my favorite music. Um, is that I was raised on 80s country. I mean, honky tonking when country wasn't cool, it was it played in my house and on records. And so I was raised up by all the greats. And I remember my first trips to Nashville, it's why we're here today, honestly. And so when I think about that, and then I think of the different pieces of music and your story, I love that country music is now embracing where people come from. Because to see an artist from Memphis come up and say, Well, this is part of who I am, and the soul is part of who I am, you get an opportunity to tell a story. And I have no doubt because so many of the people, when I've gone to hear you play, and she plays a lot of writers rounds, when I go in, people grab me, they don't even know I'm your mom. It's because I know I look way too young to be your mom. Um just do some people.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

We just look we look just alike. Oh, yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

We our personalities are alike, and my kids don't look like me. But one thing that I've heard is that people call you the Chris Stapleton of women, and I find that very interesting. Why do you think people go back to that?

SPEAKER_01 9:21

I don't know. I um Chris Stapleton does an incredible job of storytelling. Yeah. Um, so to even be like kind of compared to that remotely is is really cool and such an honor. But he just has this grit and rawness in his voice that makes you feel it. Um but he had it's all country music, but he has this. When you have the case of the blues, you can't get rid of it. It follows you for the rest of your life. And that's I tried to run away from it. I'd I moved here almost seven years ago and I went to Belmont, and you know, I was like, I'm doing this, you know, bluesy, country, folk rock kind of sound, and everybody was like, pick a lane. And I was like, What do you mean? Like, I understand you kind of have a direction, but like when you are an artist and all of your music sounds like you, that's setting up its own lane.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

And and I think that that was something that was really, really hard for me to overcome is learning how to explain myself because I don't like to explain myself. And um, but Chris Stapleton, he has his own sound, he has his own, his own lane. Um, and you know, he was really accepted. He did the steel drivers, and that was great for him. And then he was like, all right, I'm gonna branch out and do my own thing, and that's when he really stepped in and and everybody gave him the credit that he's always deserved.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

I think it's so good. And I will say, since you were a little kid, I have gone back. You don't know this because I have all your old books. Oh no. I have found poetry from when you were eight, nine years old. I did not bring a poem today. I would not dare do this without her permission. Do you understand me? The repercussions are way too great for me to go through. But um these things that you would write, and then it would affect you for so long because you didn't understand why you had to write heartbreak lyrics. And now you've lived, you have some life experience and some true heartbreak. Yeah, and we can hear that in your voice, which I know we'll hear today. If you could open for any artist at all and go on tour, who would that be and why?

SPEAKER_01 11:27

That's up. I mean, I definitely it would be Chris Stapleton. Um he he is somebody I've looked up to since I was 14 years old. Uh and I just my um Papa Bear had is my stepdad, he's raised me the biggest influence in my life. And uh he had a store.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Not the biggest.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Not the big one of the biggest. One of the biggest. I'm sorry. As far as someone who I'm not related to by blood, the impact that he left at far exceeds that. It's really cool. Okay, but yes, but no, he owned uh a furniture store in Memphis, and he gave me the opportunity uh to sing some songs for an event one time, and I'll never forget that. And that was like, I don't want to tear up, but like that was one of the first moments.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

That it felt real. That's incredible. Because then you went on to sing at the Emmy Awards with a group. You sang at the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees opener at the Boston Red Sox field. We had to wear jerseys and fake like we were Red Sox fans.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

You're gonna oh I'm sorry, but yeah, that was the first time that I was really able to like step into that artistry.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Yeah, yeah. And it feels real. It's special, it's a feeling. So for you, do you think you feel like ah, and you're gonna make me tear up now?

SPEAKER_01 12:41

My makeup was so good. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Your makeup is still good, but you're beautiful, you don't even need makeup. Um, let's not let my face crack, right? Let's hold it together. Okay, no, I'm teasing. Um when you think about and that's going pretty deep there.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

When you think about your ability to express yourself, who are you trying to reach? Honestly. Is it a girl like you or it's a girl like me.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Um growing up, I had friends here and there. I was always in extracurriculars and um worked my tail off to do everything that I could um to just excel in life and hopefully get to the next step and it'd be a little bit easier. Um But I kind of struggled having friends. People didn't really understand why I didn't like to party growing up. They didn't understand why I always walk the line. And that isolated me. And the only way that I ever learned how to like speak up for myself was through music. And that's why I'd write songs. And I started songwriting, like, really, like I'm had poetry and things like that at eight and started, but actually fully writing songs at starting at 14, almost 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

And uh I still remember the very first one I ever wrote was called White Liar. And it was kind of reminiscent of Miranda Lambert's song, and it was about a girl who used to bully me in in middle school. And um, and then I've like started writing cheating songs. I'd never even been in a relationship, and I don't know why. I just was like, oh, I started writing songs and it kind of went in that direction. I was like, well, this is interesting, but as I've kind of grown up and and written songs, it's it's a lot easier to write about heartbreak, but than it is a real love song. But I think that the most common human experience is heartbreak.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Because we have way more heartbreak than we'll ever have like real loves in life.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Yeah. Um we are bound, we are all binded together in grief.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Writing about heartbreak is a very common human experience. Um, but that can be in many different facets. That can be in family life, that can be in you know, personal relationships with friends or you know, significant others, or it could be your dog passing away, it could be anything. Um but we all experience that. And um really I kind of just I feel like I'm a vessel that God's gonna use to reach other people, and it's not about me. It's not about what I bring to the table, it's not about what I look like, what I sound like. Um marketing is very important. Um, but I think that the real work shows up when like I get up on a stage and I sing about my heart being broken or getting cheated on or all these different things and they're real life stories for me. But I my hope is that I'm gonna reach a little girl or a young woman or an older, whoever it is, it could be a guy too. Um, but I reach somebody in their seat that feels seen for the first time in a long time and know that what they're going through, they're not alone. Um so for me, going through what I go through in life, and we all have stories to tell, and I think that the more honest you are about your story and and what you've lived through, the better chance you have at reaching somebody who needs to hear it.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

That's lovely. Yeah. When you think about home and um you think about going back to home, back to where you were raised by so many around so many boys. Tell us real quickly how many boys you were raised with, what feels like home to you now, and what gave you the courage to do this?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Well, um, it's kind of like a two-part question. I have six brothers. I'm one of seven. Um I have a big, big old blended family, I'm very thankful for, but I have three older stepbrothers, three younger half-brothers. So somehow the only child that I was until about nine uh became a middle child with a whole bunch of boys. So that was that was kind of a cultural shock. But no, it made me who I am. They made me tough, and um it's really fun. I love my brothers. But um as far as what gave me the courage to do this, you know, home for home for me is being with my family. Home is where the heart is, and um having everybody in town for the holidays or making a big old meal, you know. Um I love when you make jambalaya, it just reminds me of, you know, Louisiana home and all our family there, and um just big old family time where you're just communicating and talk about life, and it's kind of the mundane, but that's that's the beauty of the beauty's in the mundane. And the sooner that you can make peace and um find contentness with that is when you'll truly experience joy. But what gave me the courage to do this was God. I gave up and said I would never do music again, and you know, completely saw a different side of the industry. And it took about nine months of me crying in my car, crying in the shower, hiking every day, talking to God constantly, saying, you know, you've closed every door, what's next? And that inner that inner knowing and that still voice of like, hey, I've I've created you for more. And um, I gotta use you. So until you get on board, you're gonna be lost. And so it was really just the courage to like, you know, do I trust God enough to hand over my life and say, do with it as you please?

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Do you feel like you've ever had to choose between being good and being real?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

That's a really good question. Yeah, I think that kind of going back to like, you know, the way that I grew up singing and and it's kind of set up to have that competitive of like who's the best, who's good. Um but then stepping into what's real is the way that I sing, and it's a little unique and it's a little different. And I think being real is the best thing that you could do.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Yeah, absolutely. Being real is great. How would you describe your artistry and your voice?

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Yeah. To someone who hasn't heard it yet. I don't know. It you kind of just gotta you gotta hear it. But um there's a little there's a little depth in there that um I'm excited to show.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Okay, so what song have you written that maybe cost you something emotionally? Have you done that yet?

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yeah. Um I'm not gonna play it today, but I wrote a song um coming back after four years of not writing, not singing, not doing nothing.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

And um I was with somebody at the time. Long story short, we'll spare you all the details there. I wrote a song and I shared it with them, and it cost me my my whole relationship. It cost me my life. It um everything that I thought, the direction it was going. Um, I wrote the song and it was just like, hey, I don't I don't know if I'm trying to do music, but I kind of feel called to write songs and maybe somebody else could sing them. And um that left me with the choice of staying in a relationship with someone um who didn't support music or choosing God and choosing music and choosing myself. And so that song, it's called Bitter Mountain. It uh it changed my entire life.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Yeah, good choice. It was a good choice. Good door to walk through. I'm gonna play rapid uh fire questions with you real quick. Okay, and then you just answer as quickly as you can and uh we'll stay, we'll stay in true. Soft or strong? Soft. Love or independence? Love. Memphis or Nashville? Nashville. Morning or midnight? Midnight. Head or heart? Heart. Vulnerable or guarded? Guarded. Safe or honest? Honest. Write it or feel it? Feel it. Cry it out or hold it in. Cry it out. Sun or moon? Moon. Past or future? Future. Hold on or let go. Let go. Remember it all or move on. Move on, but remember it all. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Speak it or sing it. Well, if you're gonna sing it, sing it like you mean it.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Yeah. Keep going or take a breath.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Take a breath.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Alright. Well, you're gonna have to keep going because I want to hear what what you've written. Um tell us about the song. Okay. And um then you're gonna go ahead and play it for us. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Uh so I wrote this song um a few weeks ago, and it's just it's hard to describe. It's kind of like a it's kind of got a double meaning to it. Um, it's called Playboy. Um, it's not exactly in the way that you're thinking it is, but it basically just kind of describes who I am and the kind of person that that that I am and hope to be, and you know, try to be consistently versus like me in a relationship with someone who is different than me and has a different uh, you know, goal.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Interesting. Is it G-rated? Because this is a family podcast. It is G-rated. Okay, we're in good place then. She can we can proceed. Well, I look forward to hearing and I look forward to hearing more about you. And I know you're going to the studio soon to begin making your first EP. You're working with a great producer. Very excited for this whole process, hearing about it, learning about it, reviewing songs and telling her which ones I like and which ones I'm like, hold that. Don't I no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

It's been a long time coming, but I'm really excited to get these songs out. I think a number of your people are ready to hear this. I think I've been playing live for the last like year and a half, just showing everybody the songs I've written, and everybody's ready to hear them in their own car and on their own radio. So I'm excited to to bring the product to the table. It's time.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

It's time.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

And then, you know, you never know who's watching this. You never know who may be tagged in the comments and who you might be opening for. But we look forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

But hey, as soon as I get a spot to open on the road, I'm gonna I'm gonna take that chance and roll with it.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

So any last wisdom you would give to young people out there. You've given some great pearls today for a young creative or a young girl who's who's maybe struggling or being bullied.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Never give up. There is someone way bigger than you with such a better plan than you could ever imagine. Um the way that you treat people is what matters.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

That's true. That's true. And it will come to pass. It's just a season.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

It is a season. Look on the bright side, try to look at the cup half full, and trust that God's got a bigger plan for you that you know far exceeds your expectations. And one day you'll look back and laugh, but never give up.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Good.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

I like that. Keep going.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

All right, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Tennessee, sweet, kind of sweetheart. From poor trapping round to the backyard, sipping tea by fire out of Cleve Yard, a fishing in a pitch black kind of dark. Don't want you take home the mama. Not caught up in small town drama. Cause when I'm sober, I can see why it's all over. Don't need any of the closure. It always brings us closer, and you're playing the game. I never wanted to play anyway. If there ain't nothing there you can say that'll make me play, boy. I forgive when I've been drinking all the stuff you've done wrong, and here you are tryna get me back to step into that song. You ain't taking me home. Tonight I'm going home alone. Cause when I ain't sober, I can't see why it's all over. So bring on all the closure. It always brings us closer. You know I keep on playing anyway. There ain't nothing you need to say to make me play. Just play the game, but I'm the kind of girl give your last name, but just a thirteen going on thirty. So when you're sober, you see by its all over, then you want back all the closure. Cause it always brought us closer. Look, you played a game. I never wanted to play anyway. There ain't nothing you need to say. Cause I don't want a play.