Stephanie Quayle grew up among cowboys, but her latest song "If I Was a Cowboy" fits her for a half dozen other reasons. Watch the Montana-raised singer perform the inspiring new single during the very first Taste of Country Live Sessions.

In a phrase, "If I Was a Cowboy" is "strong (and) a little vulnerable," just like she is. Baritone guitar and a western whistle identify the arrangement (and Quayle's new sound, she says), but her message goes deeper. There's an essential strength and courage to the lyrics that drew her to the song immediately. She had a stop everything moment and flashed back to falling off her cutting horse at age five.

"I was fighting back a lot of tears and my mom just like, propped me back up and (said), 'You get back on the horse,'" Quayle recalls. "I grew up with so many cowboys, and my mom was the coolest one of them all."

"Cowboys ain't fragile / They're back in the saddle / Don't wait for their heart to unbreak / They just ride away," she sings to end the chorus of this live performance. Shane McAnnally, Ross Copperman and Nicolle Galyon wrote the song, but "If I Was a Cowboy" needed a very specific type of singer to make it real. It was just the song Quayle says she was looking for.

"Over the course of my career I've wanted to sonically find that thing that makes me, me," she says. "When you hear a Kacey Musgraves song, you know. When you hear a Miranda song, you know. When you hear Carly Pearce or Ashley McBryde, there's this sonic trend that each one of them have individually that is very identifiable. That's something I've been longing for and I didn't know what it was."

Find "If I Was a Cowboy" and Quayle's new, but still familiar sound on an upcoming studio album she would not promise for 2019, but says will come quicker than her last one did.

This video performance of "If I Was a Cowboy" was filmed at the Taste of Country studio in February 2019.

Cody Johnson's Single "On My Way to You" Is Just as Inspiring:

29 Songs from Women You Need to Hear Today:

More From Cat Country 102.9