Carly Pearce Says Honest Woman Celebrates Her Bluegrass Roots and the Kentucky Girl Who Influenced Her

“I honestly don’t think there’s a single track on this album where I compromised or settled. I’ve never felt that way about a record before,” Pearce tells PEOPLE during a conversation at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.

After almost 20 years of making a life and career in Nashville and establishing herself as one of country music’s notable contemporary voices, Carly Pearce is taking a moment to reconnect with where she came from.

Pearce is celebrating the release of her new album, Honest Woman, as well as her fifth anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. During a backstage conversation with PEOPLE on Saturday, July 29, she reflected on how the project brought her closer to the person she was before leaving Kentucky for Tennessee. The occasion also unexpectedly turned into a tribute to the late Dolly Parton.

Pearce says the album helped her recognize how much of her identity was shaped before her move to Nashville 17 years ago.

“There was so much of my life before Nashville that people never really knew about,” Pearce explains. She points to her Kentucky upbringing, her bluegrass background and the strong-willed personality she developed growing up. All of those experiences, she says, contributed to the woman and artist she eventually became.

Although those elements have always been part of Pearce’s story, nearly a decade after her breakthrough song “Every Little Thing,” she realized that many listeners were unfamiliar with an important part of her past. That realization gave her another story to tell through her music.

“I honestly assumed people already knew everything about me,” Pearce admits. “By the time you’re making your fifth album, you start thinking, ‘What else could I possibly have left to say?’”

One of the biggest surprises was discovering how many fans were unaware of her early connection to bluegrass. Long before she became a country star, Pearce performed at Dollywood after leaving Kentucky at 16. Honest Woman gave her the chance to revisit that younger version of herself and reconnect with the music she loved as a child.

Pearce says she finds it amusing when fans tell her they never realized she had a bluegrass background. To her, that musical tradition was such a significant part of her upbringing that it feels almost surprising that people are only learning about it now.

Revisiting those roots also required Pearce to step away from some of the pressures that can come with creating a mainstream country album.

According to the singer, artists naturally want their records to succeed, and that can sometimes lead them to follow outside expectations or pursue what they believe others want from them. With Honest Woman, however, Pearce says she experienced a different kind of creative freedom.

For the first time, she says, she wasn’t presented with a song and told that it had to make the album. Instead, she and her team were able to focus on the music itself rather than simply trying to assemble a collection of commercial singles.

Pearce believes that freedom made her appreciate the album even more. She says her team was impressed by its artistic depth, and she feels strongly that none of the songs were included simply to fill space.

The openness of the project also allowed Pearce to explore more vulnerable aspects of her life. One of the earliest songs she remembers writing for the album was “Dream Come True,” an intensely personal song that brought her face-to-face with a subject she had rarely discussed publicly: her mother’s illness.

Pearce remembers questioning whether she should reveal something so personal, particularly as someone who had already achieved many of the goals that aspiring artists dream about.

She wondered whether it was appropriate to discuss her mother and the challenges surrounding her health when she had previously kept that part of her life private.

Ultimately, Pearce chose to follow her instincts and be as truthful as possible, even when the truth was complicated.

She acknowledges that success can come with conflicting emotions. An artist can feel incredibly thankful for the life they’ve built while simultaneously experiencing the pressure, struggles and emotional weight that accompany it. For Pearce, Honest Woman became a way of embracing both sides rather than pretending that success is always simple or easy.