Aubrie Sellers remembers the first time she stepped onto the stage at the massive NRG Stadium as part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo concert schedule. It was 2025 and she was singing backup for Parker McCollum, the then white-hot country artist born in Conroe.
A year later, the now-even-hotter McCollum plays the Rodeo on March 20, again with Sellers vocalizing along.
“It was a unique experience, and it’s huge! The stage was rotating! And it opened up like a flower with all these fireworks! It was definitely a Bucket List show,” Sellers laughs via Zoom. “I was nervous, but it lived up to my expectation. I even walked around that day and bought turquoise jewelry.”
March 20 will also be a big day in her own performing life as it will mark the release of Attachment Theory, her third solo record. She’ll also have a TV performance on that day’s The Kelly Clarkson Show.
But Houstonians will have a serendipitous opportunity to both see Sellers perform on her own and meet her the day before. She’ll be appearing at Cactus Music on March 19, at 5:30 pm. Copies of Attachment Theory will be available for purchase.
It’s an effort that sounds wholly unlike anything she’s done before—more alt-rock than alt-country. Plus, it’s a concept record.
“It’s all about relationships. I love country, but I also love rock. It’s an album that you sit and listen to as a whole. And it’s darker, because there’s a lot of heartbreak,” Sellers says. She’s also launched a companion podcast of the same name to further discuss and explore the record’s main themes.
The title comes from the term invented and concept developed by British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby which “posits that humans have an innate need for close emotional bonds with primary caregivers for survival and healthy emotional development.”
Indeed, the opening stanza of the title track written by Sellers and Ken Yates goes “I went to therapy/To find the perfect version of me/Let’s take a look and see/What’s hiding under these memories.”
“That’s where the concept came together when Ken and I worked on that. He lives in his own world and doesn’t really have country influences. I have been to a lot of therapy, and it was a little tongue in cheek because there is no perfect version of you,” she says.
“But it’s about becoming a better version of yourself both through self-work and through relationships. We are social creatures, and there’s only so much we can learn on our own. Some stuff only comes out through relationships. It also has the line ‘It ran in my family/Until it ran into me.” We try to heal the things that were not healed in previous generations.”
Sellers then lets out a self-conscious laugh, as if knowing the conversation is veering toward the heavy. Well, if this music thing doesn’t work out for her…there could be an office with a chair and a reclining couch in her future.
In many of the official PR materials put out by and about Sellers—including her own website—her music is described as “Garage County.” And while that raw rock-tinged flavor certainly applies to debut record New City Blues (2016) and a bit less to follow up Far From Home (2020), it’s mostly absent from Attachment Theory.
With a pace and sound that could be described as dreamy, ethereal, languid, and shimmering (with the occasional hard guitar or synth) all carried by Sellers’ floating voice, it’s definitely an artistic stretch. And one that works.
“Part of the reason I’ve accepted the term is that I don’t think that—especially this record—it would fit under ‘rock’ or ‘country’ or even ‘Americana.’ This one pushes further into alternative territory. But it is what it is and I am who I am!” she laughs.
Yates isn’t the only co-writer on Attachment Theory. Sellers works with a lot of them on both lyrics and music. She doesn’t consult her Writing Partner Contact List at song’s creation but decides more “on the day of” who she wants to work with. Something perhaps she saw and learned from her parents who are also in the industry: Mom is country superstar Lee Ann Womack, and dad is solo artist/songwriter Jason Sellers.
Two of the record’s main themes are how previous romantic relationships can affect current ones—and not often in a good way (“Mirage,” “Trigger Happy,” “Villain of the Week”), and how people can often pick apart and compartmentalize aspects of their partner (“Prototype,” “Subatomic,” “Little Rooms”). “Look Up” and “Delusional” also act as commentary on relationship expectations and realities.
“’Subatomic’ is about a critical partner which can also contribute to avoiding attachment because avoidantly attached people tend to keep a distance even if they’re not doing is consciously,” she says. ‘”Prototype’ is about person who keeps you around until the fake idea of who you want that person to be comes around, or you try to turn them into that ideal of a person!”
She laughs again, knowing she’s getting deep for a music interview. “I always try to psychoanalyze people because I want to know why are you doing this? And why am I doing this!”
She adds that a “red flag” in relationships is someone not wanting to “do their own work.” And that our adult relationships often stem from relationships we have as kids. And especially with our parents. Again, if this music thing doesn’t work out…Dr. Sellers is in!
“Everything [I write] comes from a personal place. And it’s a running list!” she says.
Sellers also has yet another side gig as part of the duo Sellers + Jackson, a more rock-oriented group with Jade Jackson. They released debut album Breaking Point in 2021 and are planning a spring tour that will consist of both individual and collaborative sets. They hope to make another album together.
But back to the Rodeo. In a discussion of this year’s performers, we tell Sellers that one of the more interesting bookings this year is a reunited Creed, currently having a huge surge in popularity—and not just on Aughts Nostalgia. They seem to be taking up the “Classic Rock” slot formerly occupied by ‘70s or ‘80s groups. I profess that it makes me sound old.
“Same!” Sellers shouts.
“Oh, please,” I counter “I mean, you’re all of 35.”
“I’m not 35 yet, I’m 34!” she says, before questioning herself. “Am I? I might be! I just had a birthday.”
Sellers then conducts a quick Google search of herself.
“Oh…I am 35!” she laughs. “I guess this is where I start losing count!”
Aubrie Sellers will perform and sign copies of Attachment Theory at 5:30 pm on Thursday, March 19, at Cactus Music, 2110 Portsmouth. Those who purchase the record will receive a priority line placement wristband. For more information, call 713-526-9272 or visit CactusMusicTX.com. Free.
For more on Aubrie Sellers, visit AubrieSellers.com