Arkansas-Native Receives Nods for Female Artist of the Year,
Album of the Year for Critically Acclaimed Never Will and
Song of the Year for Lead Single and Gold-Certified “One Night Standards”
Follows 2021 GRAMMY Nomination for Best Country Album
Ashley McBryde released Never Will via Warner Music Nashville to critical acclaim, earning a spot as one of the best albums of the year as the only Country artist landing in the top 20 of Rolling Stone‘s all-genre “Best Albums of 2020” dubbing Never Will as “this year’s most adventurous mainstream country album” while landing at No. 1 on Rolling Stone‘s “Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020,” proclaiming the record “re-creates the trick McBryde pulled off on her stellar debut: proving that honest-to-goodness country songs can have commercial appeal.”
Today, the Arkansas-native gains four 2021 nominations from The Academy of Country Music (ACM). The 2019 New Female Artist is up for Female Artist of the Year, Album of the Year with Never Will and Song of the Year (artist + songwriter) with lead single and RIAA Gold-Certified “One Night Standards,” cowritten with Shane McAnally and Nicolette Hayford.
“I am honored to have been nominated alongside so many peers I respect and admire, and I can’t thank the Academy of Country Music enough for recognizing the incredible work not only my band, Jay Joyce and myself put into this record, but the songwriters and my team,” shares McBryde. “I look forward to the day we can celebrate this album together, along with our fans.”
McBryde’s ACM nods follow her 2021 nomination from The Recording Academy for Best Country Album, which The Wall Street Journal declared “she’s moved to the forefront of today’s country, and this consistent, exciting and always smart album shows why,” and marks her fourth career nomination and second in the category behind her 2018 major label breakthrough Girl Going Nowhere.
Voted by a consortium of leading national music critics, the follow up also received the title of Best Album from January’s Nashville Scene‘s 21st Annual Country Music Critics’ Poll, along with achievements in four additional categories: Best Single for “One Night Standards” at No. 3 and current single “Martha Divine” at No. 26; Best Female Vocalist at No. 2; Best Songwriter at No. 6; and Artist of the Year at No. 4.
Lead single “One Night Standards” emerged as McBryde’s first Top 10 hit while going RIAA-Certified Gold in both the United States and Canada after landing on NPR‘s “25 Best Songs of 2019,” while The New York Times named the track in the top three “Best Songs of 2020,” marking the only country song in the top 15, with Jon Pareles sharing, “Ashley McBryde provides pithy, matter-of-fact details of a random hookup — ‘I don’t really care if you’re here when I wake up’ — and while the music swells, her heart stays cold.”
As touring has been on hold since the release of Never Will, McBryde gives fans a taste of what her album sounds like live with her upcoming six-song EP Never Will: Live From A Distance available to pre-save now and arriving Friday, May 28. EP opener “First Thing I Reach For – Live” is available everywhere now. Fans can join McBryde’s fan club, The Trybe, to be the first to hear the new songs and get exclusive opportunities.
Never Will Track Listing:
- Hang In There Girl (Ashley McBryde, Jeremy Bussey)
- One Night Standards (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford, Shane McAnally)
- Shut Up Sheila (Nicolette Hayford, Charles Chisholm)
- First Thing I Reach For (Ashley McBryde, Randall Clay, Mick Holland)
- Voodoo Doll (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford, Brandy Clark, Connie Harrington, Jake Mitchell, Aaron Raitiere)
- Sparrow (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford, Brandy Clark, Connie Harrington, Jake Mitchell, Aaron Raitiere)
- Martha Divine (Ashley McBryde, Jeremy Spillman)
- Velvet Red (Ashley McBryde, Patrick Savage, Daniel Smalley)
- Stone (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford)
- Never Will (Ashley McBryde, Chris Harris, Blue Foley, Matt Helmkamp, Christian Sancho, Victor Quinn Hill)
- Styrofoam (Randall Clay)
About Ashley McBryde
Ashley McBryde cut her teeth playing country songs in rural biker bars – and it shows. Her 2018 major label debut Girl Going Nowhere (Warner Music Nashville) charmed the New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, Paste, The Washington Post, and more, all en route to landing a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album. McBryde closed out 2019 with ACM New Female Artist, CMT Breakout Artist of the Year, a New Artist of the Year win at the 53rd Annual CMA Awards and two nominations for the 2020 GRAMMYs for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for “Girl Goin’ Nowhere.” Her follow-up Never Will, released April 3, was tagged by Rolling Stone as one of the most anticipated of the year alongside NPR, who also ranked her lead Top 10 RIAA Gold-Certified single “One Night Standards” as one of the best songs of 2019. Produced once again by Jay Joyce, Never Will reveals the witty, confessional, detail-driven songwriting addressing a wide spectrum of blue-collar Southern women’s experience introduced on Girl Going Nowhere is still here, but perhaps even sharper, earning McBryde a 2021 GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album, along with 2021 ACM nominations for Album of the Year, Female Artist of the Year and song of the year for lead single “One Night Standards.” The music itself is stadium-ready rock-and-roll with a bluegrass wink or two and country music’s storytelling heart––and McBryde, no longer new, is the music’s ordained and highly capable standard bearer. For more information, visit AshleyMcBryde.com or follow her at Facebook.com/AshleyMcBryde, Instagram @AshleyMcBryde and Twitter at @AshleyMcBryde.
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