"California, Missouri" singer Kassi Ashton gets deeply personal in her latest single, "Pretty Shiny Things." She starts sounding like Amy Winehouse with a Southern accent while cutting down the pageant mothers and ex-partners with skewed priorities about looking pretty and getting paid -- and, according to the singer, the song's healing powers are a two-way street.

“It has been like, literally amazing," Ashton tells The Boot of fans' responses to "Pretty Shiny Things." "I held onto that song for a long time because I was nervous. It’s a lot. I knew I’d have to talk about it, and I wasn’t ready to show that yet, the dirt ... And I decided that other people needed it, and if just one person said, 'Hey, I really needed to hear this,' everything else that I had to endure would be worth it."

"Put your makeup on, girl / Stand up straight / Your face will take you farther than your brain / You oughta know by now, beauty is pain," Ashton sings in the song's chorus. As Ashton had hoped, the track has been helping her growing fanbase deal with that sort of harmful advice.

"I’ve literally gotten hundreds of messages ... of people saying, 'I needed to hear this,' or, 'My son, or my mom, or my neighbor, and I, really needed this, now I know how to go forward with this situation in my life.' And I literally sit and read all those DMs and become their therapist and let them into my world, and I try to step into theirs," Ashton shares. "I mean, that’s what music’s for. I just wanna help. I try to be as honest as possible and feel like they have someone on their side.”

"Pretty Shiny Things," as well as Ashton's other releases to date -- songs such as "Taxidermy" and "Violins" -- tease a forthcoming debut album featuring a wide range of themes and stylistic influences.

"As far as the songs as a whole, they're all very different, but I'm hoping my fans realize they're all very me," the up-and-comer told The Boot in November. "I'm hoping that my fans realize that I'm being just as honest and authentic and open as I can be. That's very important to me."

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