Welcome to Inside the Round: A special collaboration between The Country Note X Southern Rounds
Ahead of Southern Rounds’ New York debut, singer and songwriter Hannah Dasher talks about the songs she has written, the stories she protects, and what audiences may hear when she sits down with a guitar.
Hannah Dasher wants your attention from the first line. It is a rule she follows when she writes a song, and she brought it to the pages of her cookbook, too. If she is going to tell you a story before giving you a recipe, she wants to make you laugh or keep you reading. Spend a few minutes talking with her, and it becomes clear that she holds herself to the same standard in conversation.
Consider the story of “Go to Bed Early.” While working at Bass Pro Shops, Dasher got an idea she couldn’t leave alone. She even searched online to see whether someone had written it already. Then she did what an aspiring Nashville songwriter might do when inspiration strikes at an inconvenient time: she wrote on the job. Bass Pro Shops fired her. About six months later, she signed her first publishing deal, and Brad Paisley eventually recorded the song she co-wrote.
Dasher told me she wanted to play “Go to Bed Early” at her Grand Ole Opry debut because the Bass Pro Shops parking lot was right there. She laughed as she described it as her chance to stick a middle finger in the air, then quickly added that she had nothing against Bass Pro Shops. She just liked the idea of having the last laugh!
On Thursday, September 24, Dasher joins Kevin MaC and D. Vincent Williams at The Paley Museum in New York City for the opening night of Southern Rounds: Bringing Nashville to New York. Before the show, we talked about the craft behind her music, the songs she has shared with other artists, and the side of herself she hopes people will see in a more intimate room.
Dasher describes herself as a country music and rock ’n’ roll loving person who takes a few wardrobe cues from Elvis and Dolly Parton. She loves to entertain, she said, and to leave people in a better place than she found them. Fans who discovered her through her Stand By Your Pan cooking videos know how readily she can hold an audience’s attention, even from her kitchen.
For Dasher, a great song has more than an opening that draws you in. She wants you to remember it, to feel part of it, and to be able to sing it back by the next chorus. But she also believes a song should stand on its own, without an introduction to explain what it means. A round gives listeners something extra: the chance to hear how it came to be.
That opportunity comes with a responsibility she takes seriously. A personal story shared by a co-writer may inspire an honest song without becoming hers to tell in public. Some of the most compelling details from a writing room, she reminded me, belong to the person who trusted others enough to share them.
Asked which of her own songs has a story that continues to unfold, she chose “Ugly Houses.” As she grows and reflects on her faith, she finds herself returning to its idea of personal renovation. It is a song she can grow into because she is still changing herself.
Dasher’s writing has also found a home in other artists’ voices. When we talked about Lainey Wilson’s “LA,” I told her I remembered singing along when Wilson opened a show in Syracuse in 2022. Dasher had brought part of the song into their writing session, knowing Wilson was from Louisiana. Hearing her explain that beginning gave me a new way to listen to a song I already loved.
After spending years working on her Stand By Your Pan cookbook while continuing to tour, Dasher told me she has recently begun writing songs again. She has tested new material on the road and plans to bring a couple of unreleased songs to New York. She is looking forward to hearing what the other writers bring, too.
The setting may reveal something else. Dasher usually leads a lively honky-tonk show, moving across the stage and keeping the energy high. Sitting down for a round could give her room to sing songs she might pass over in a full-band set, and give the audience a closer listen to her voice and vulnerability.
That is the promise of this night: three writers sharing songs in their own voices, with time to hear a little more of what went into them. Dasher will bring the humor and fire her fans expect. She may also bring a song New York has never heard.
Southern Rounds: Bringing Nashville to New York takes place Thursday, September 24, at The Paley Museum, 25 West 52nd Street. The songwriting master class begins at 5 p.m., and the live performance begins at 8 p.m. Event details and tickets.