"When it came time to choose a title for the record, that title just kept floating around in my head," Hale told Radio.com during a phone interview last week. "It just seemed perfect, because this is my first album, I was calling that song the anthem to my life, and - it just felt like the right decision."

Road Between, which hit stores this week (June 3), marks a new career turn for the Memphis, Tenn. native. Though she's been singing since she was a kid, and is a lifelong country music fan, she's actually best known as an actress playing Aria Montgomery on the TV show Pretty Little Liars.

"It's because of the success of that show that I've been given opportunities to do my music," Hale said. "I grew up wanting to do music, and wanting to perform. The acting sort of - it didn't fall in my lap, I worked really hard at it, but it was an idea that came to me a little later than the music. For me, I've always been a musician at heart who turned to acting. But in everyone else's eyes, it's the opposite."

Hale's on-screen career began when she appeared in 2003 on the reality TV singing competition American Juniors. After that she moved to L.A. to pursue a music career but wound up getting small parts in films and on television. In 2009, she landed her regular role on Pretty Little Liars.

She never let go of her dream of pursuing music, though, and in 2012, she signed a recording deal with Hollywood Records, a label owned by the Disney Group that is home to such artists as Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. And while she admits to being a fan of pop music, for her, that musical direction didn't fit. "I always knew that when it came time to make music it was going to be country. Nothing else would have felt as genuine."

Hale's debut single, the bright and peppy "You Sound Good to Me," was released to country radio and digital outlets earlier this year. "I loved the title before I ever heard it," Hale told Radio.com about the song, which was written by Nashville stalwarts Luke Laird, Hillary Lindsey and Ashley Gorley. On the demo she first heard, though, "there was a guy singing it, so that threw me at first," she said. "But then a couple hours later I was humming the chorus and couldn't get it out of my head." And, she continued, "it set the tone for me as an artist, the album, and where I see my career going."

It's the album's title track, though, where Hale feels she's most "vulnerable." "Everyone asks what song I relate to most on the album, and I say ['Road Between'], because it's kind of like my anthem," Hale said. It's a gently paced song built around inspirational lyrics from the point of view of someone in the midst of struggles and still finding their way through life. "I'm still getting to the good part," Hale sings, "learning how to write my story" and "finding who I'm gonna be."

Hale said the song reflects where she was personally and professionally at the time. "You know, sometimes you can't really explain how you're feeling, but a song does. So that's just how I feel about that song."