Ashley McBryde is using her new album, “Wild,” to lay out the hard edges of her life with rare openness. The country singer’s fifth studio release draws from her upbringing, her years in bars, her sobriety journey, and the people and moments that shaped her along the way.
The album also shows how she has built a career without fitting a neat country-music mold. Born in Arkansas, McBryde grew up with a fundamentalist preacher father, worked the music circuit in biker bars, endured a severe concussion after falling from a horse, and later became known for her tattoos, gray streak, and direct stage presence.
A record built from lived experience
“Wild” spans 11 songs and was produced by John Osborne of Brothers Osborne. McBryde recorded it with her live band, Deadhorse, which helped keep the album rooted in the sound and chemistry she brings onstage.
The project opens with several rock-leaning cuts before shifting into heavier emotional territory. One of the clearest examples is “Bottle Tells Me So,” a song that captures the low point of a long night of drinking and the disorientation that followed.
That song is tied to a real incident that helped trigger intervention from her team and eventually led her into rehab. McBryde says the song is not meant as a lecture, but as a reflection on struggle that can mean different things to different listeners.
“Not everybody has a drinking problem,” she says. “For me it was a bottle, and for you it’s something else, and that’s the point.”
Sobriety sits at the center of the story
McBryde says she has now been sober for four years, but the path to that point was dark even after major industry success. She has won a Grammy, three Academy of Country Music Awards, a Country Music Association Award, and is a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
At her lowest point, she says she was forced to choose between destructive impulses and reaching out for help. “The only thing I had was a pistol and a cell phone,” she says, describing how she would call a friend instead of giving in to the moment.
That honesty carries into the album’s writing, which avoids the usual country clichés. Rather than focusing on drinking or cheating, the songs examine family pain, emotional distance, loss, and regret.
Songs that reach beyond the expected country script
“Rattlesnake Preacher” takes on her complicated relationship with her father, while “Lines in the Carpet” looks at a marriage stripped of emotion. Another track, “What if We Don’t,” deals with the death of a high school friend and an unreturned love.
McBryde says telling those stories on record also shaped the visual side of the album. She filmed 11 videos, one for each song, and describes the process as demanding but fitting for a project built around personal history.
Touring, home life, and Redemption
McBryde will bring the new songs on the road with her “Into the Wild” tour, a 26-city run that begins in September. She says she enjoys touring deeply, even though she also values the quiet routines of being at home.
When she is not performing, she often spends time at Redemption, the nonalcoholic bar she owns on the fifth floor of Eric Church’s Chief’s in Nashville. The venue does serve alcohol if requested, but McBryde says it was designed to give people space if they do not want to be around heavy drinking.
She describes the bar as welcoming rather than prescriptive. “I’m not saying this is a bar for sober people,” she says, but notes that it offers a different atmosphere for those who want one.
Style that matches the music
McBryde’s image also reflects her personality and the album’s tone. She is most comfortable in T-shirts and jeans, usually paired with boots, and she says sleeveless or low-cut pieces help show the tattoos that mark important people and moments in her life.
Her look has evolved over time, but some details remain constant, including the gray streak on the left side of her hair. She went gray at 24, and her hairstylist has since added permed extensions to match her natural curls and reduce the time needed for daily styling.
For red carpets and award shows, she switches into a more polished version of herself, choosing clothes that read well on camera. For the recent Academy of Country Music Awards, that meant a dark brown dress for the carpet and a red column dress while presenting Male Artist of the Year.
Big goals still ahead
Even with a decorated career, McBryde still talks about growth in practical terms. She says she is proud of how the team has moved from a van to larger touring setups, but she wants the audience to grow much more.
Her long-term goals include playing for 10,000 people a night, headlining Red Rocks, and reaching Madison Square Garden. She also hopes to add more tattoos honoring the songwriters who inspired her, including Kris Kristofferson and Guy Clark.
For McBryde, “Wild” appears to be both a personal document and a live statement of intent. It connects sobriety, survival, and ambition in a way that keeps her story at the center while pointing toward a bigger stage ahead.
Read more at: wwd.com
