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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ashley McBryde has
built an unconventional career since a teacher back home in Mammoth
Spring, Arkansas suggested the singer/songwriter not get her hopes up
about a career in music. Criss-crossing the South, playing any gig, room
or biker bar she could find, the raven haired young woman built a
foundation fan-by-fan, gig-by-gig over a number of years on her way to a
deal with Atlantic Records/Warner Music Nashville.
Today, the artist who was told she’d amount to nothing sees Girl Going Nowhere as the biggest debut by a solo country artist this year. Championed by SiriusXM’s The Highway,
McBryde’s “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega” found traction; anywhere
people heard the voice that’s equal parts real life, unabashed hope and
savoring the good parts, they responded, coming to shows, buying music
and singing along.
"It feels incredible to have this album out in the world," says McBryde
who collaborated with producer Jay Joyce on the 11-song album. "It may
not seem like it, but I’ve always been a shy person, so to hear stories
of how other folks relate to these stories, these lyrics and our songs
reaffirms this unconventional path we took creating and releasing it."
McBryde is
the latest in a new breed of country music maverick. Rather than wait
on country radio, she makes her music, goes out to her fans and connects
from the soul and the heart. With her single “A Little Dive Bar in
Dahlonega” sitting just outside the Top 30, Girl achieves
unprecedented chart position on the strength of her fans seeing
themselves in her songs. Whether it’s the second chance of “Little Dive
Bar,” the dug-in dreamer of the title track, the hell-bent for love
“American Scandal” or the tender “The Jacket,” McBryde’s country is cut
from her life – and the lives of many people just like her.
With The New York Times proclaiming, “Varied, warm and effortlessly confident,” Rolling Stone opining, “She has a serious gift” and Variety declaring,
“An unabashed, Southern-rooted, honest-to-Gawd great country
record,” McBryde has touched a nerve amongst music lovers. As Billboard points out, “Unlike Nashville’s current crop,” McBryde’s earthy tenor as a singer and a writer has been described by The Washington Post as “Vivid,” Uproxx as “Prodigiously talented” and Entertainment Weekly as “…cutting
through the cookie-cutter clutter of contemporary pop-country, thanks
to her gifts at combining classic storytelling specificity.”
In a world/genre where strong women’s voices are hard to
find, McBryde stands out, NPR recognized the potency of her work early.
Featuring album cut “Radioland” on All Songs Considered, they
wrote, “The cheap comparison would be female Chris Stapleton, but Ashley
is her own woman. She really does however, combine the energy of rock,
the earnestness and simple beauties of prime-era Springsteen or
John Mellencamp; her songs are about family, working people, about
living your best life when your best life is maybe on the outskirts of
town in a ranch house with a manual lawnmower.”
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