Ashley McBryde: The Language She Wants To Master in 2024

Ashley McBryde recently posted to Instagram a recap of her 2023, like many country artists have been doing in the last few days, but then she posted something that she wants to know more about in 2024. Ashley posted a video to Instagram explaining that she uses sign language to communicate with her staff while on stage and with her fans in the crowd.

In the video clip, the person filming the video asks McBryde why she loves using sign language so much.

Ashley responded, speaking and using sign language as she said in a clip filming in a kitchen backstage before a show. She said, "Well, there was a time when I couldn't speak because I had surgery on my voice, so I learned enough to get things I needed, like a beer and a shot and food, things like that. Then, when we were on tour this summer (2023), we were in some really hot situations where the pits were really hot, and people were passing out, and I didn't have a way to tell my team side-stage that there was an emergency."

She continued, "I needed to stop the show, and it takes so many minutes to get it done, but if I can let them know there's an emergency (she starts to sign) out here. We need an ambulance; we need a doctor or a nurse here. Or to say it's big, hot, and water... they need water, or I'm thirsty."

McBryde continued to sign, saying, "I went to the back of the stage where normally I wouldn't (recently), and I turned around and said, 'Sorry, I'm thirsty.' I needed water." And then it would occur to me because I would sign a few things like 'You're beautiful' or 'Give applause to our audience' and then people started signing back to me. I didn't know what they were saying, so now I feel rude. I don't like that. Now, I need to learn more ASL (American Sign Language).

Ashley McBryde is quickly becoming one of country music's brightest stars. She embarked on her first headline tour this fall. The Grammy winner released a new album, The Devil I Know, in September to rave reviews.

I talked with Ashley recently and asked if she felt pressure making her new album, The Devil I Know. She references her Grammy win for Best Country Duo/Group for "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" with Carly Pearce. She said, "I think going in to make the record, because we've been sitting on it for a year since I didn't have the Grammy yet, that helped take some pressure off."

McBryde doesn't let award nominations and wins influence her music. She said, "And releasing the record, we try to keep things like that, CMAs, ACMs, Grammys... We love them, appreciate them fully, and celebrate them, but when we go into creation mode, nothing gets to come into the room. Not what radio thinks and not who thinks what I should wear or what I should say. None of that gets to come into the room; we try to keep them separate. I'm so excited for this record to finally be out."

She also discussed how long she has been writing her own songs. McBryde was just a child when she first realized she was a songwriter. She said, "I think I must have been really small because I've been telling my mom that I was gonna move to Nashville, Tennesse, and become a country singer since I was really small, probably five years old."

And the song's lyrics and melodies came quickly to her. She said, "I would make things up. I would just come inside and sing what I had done. Like if I walked to the mailbox or whatever I'd seen, I'd come in and sing that to my mom."

She added, "I grew up listening to bluegrass and things like that, so playing instruments and songwriters, those were things that were very accessible things. The masters of their instruments were super accessible at bluegrass festivals. So, it never occurred to me not to be a songwriter."

As Ashley's country music career blossoms, we gathered six of her best songs that everyone should know.

This song was not released as a radio single, but it's a banger just the same. The song was part of Ashley's Grammy-nominated album Lindeville and features her good friends Pillbox Patti and Caylee Hammack. The video for the song reminds us of the Chicks' late 1990s murder classic "Goodbye Earl." It's a fan-favorite song, and the video, with four million views, is a true classic in the making.

Warning: The video content is adult-oriented - See the video here.

This is Ashley's debut single to country radio; while the song also hit the top 30 on the Billboard country charts, it was named one of the 54 Best Songs of 2017 by The New York Times, and one of the Top 25 Best Country Songs of 2017 by Rolling Stone. The music video, filmed at a truck stop and featuring working people, has 13 million views.

McBryde was inspired to write the song based on her experience with her high school algebra teacher. She had told the educator that she planned on becoming a singer-songwriter. The teacher replied by saying that her dream was "stupid" and that she needed a backup plan. The song is the title track to her debut debut studio album.

This song was nominated at the 55th CMA Awards for Single of the Year and Song of the Year. Filmed at the Drake Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, this song's music video depicts Ashley working as a receptionist checking in a couple when she recognizes the man waiting outside as a friend's father. She alerts her friend, which leads to her coming down to the hotel and confronting him and the mistress with a shovel and ends with McBryde and her friend stuffing the woman into the trunk of a car before driving away.

This is Ashley's first single release from her The Devil I Know album. She told me of the song's video, "I'm so excited that 'Light On In The Kitchen' got nominated for (CMA) Video of the Year because that video was taken in one continuous shot. Which means the production team and everybody was there in the early, early early hours of the day, building all the sets. It's in one big room, and then what you see is this really smooth transition from a bedroom to a kitchen scene to where the band is."

This is the song that made McBryde and her friend Carly Pearce Grammy winners. They won Best Country Duo/Group for this song at the 2023 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The song featured on Pearce's album 29:Written In Stone also topped the country songs chart on Billboard. It was the first number-one song for Ashley, and the two performed it together at the CMA Awards.