Make Room at the Bottom

Album: Words (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Ashley Monroe co-wrote this heartbreaking song with Brett James and recorded it for her debut album Satisfied in 2006. Despite garnering good reviews, the record failed to trouble the charts. However, when this track was played to Sara Evans a decade later it made an impact – both with her and another certain family member.

    "I had never heard it, and didn't know it was an older song," she told Billboard magazine. "It was really awesome on the part of the song pluggers and the publishers to think about the song for me. I love it when publishers do that. They really do their jobs, and they dig in, and find songs that they think I would love and that I would deliver well. As soon as I heard it, I loved it. I wanted to hold it.

    "Then I took it home and played it for my kids," Evans continued. "My son Avery said 'Mom, if you don't cut this song, I will lose all hope in you.' He's seventeen, but very wise beyond his years. For him to say that about the song is huge to me. It's a deep, dark, depressing song. And, he still has faith in me."
  • Brett James, who co-wrote this song, was 57 when he died in a plane crash on September 18, 2025. "I am absolutely heartbroken at the loss of one of the best writers I've ever worked with and recorded," Evans posted. "He will be so missed."

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