Last year, Grammy-winning country singer Ashley McBryde added her name to the list of glowing neon signs along Nashville’s Broadway Street when she opened her new venue, Redemption Bar. Located on the fifth floor of Eric Church’s bar, Chief’s, Redemption provides a safe, inviting place for Broadway visitors who choose not to partake in alcoholic beverages. Recently, some of those visitors got quite the shock when the three-time Academy of Country Music Award winner popped up at the venue for an impromptu performance.
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Since its April 2024 opening, Chief’s has offered exclusive behind-the-scenes looks to members of the Church’s Choir, the “Springsteen” singer’s fan club. On Friday morning (Jan. 24), as a batch of superfans made their way through the six-story venue, they found none other than Ashley McBryde sitting in the corner, strumming her guitar and singing her 2019 single “One Night Standards.”
“Bartenders just standing there like it’s totally normal for her to be there before open just singing and picking,” remarked one social media user.
Added another, “I would die!!”
If you missed McBryde’s early-morning performance, however, don’t worry. The “Girl Going Nowhere” singer, 42, has extended her Redemption Residency at Chief’s. She played the first of two “Just Me and My Shadow” solo acoustic shows Thursday (Jan. 22) and will return tonight (Friday, Jan. 24) for the second. The Arkansas-born preacher’s daughter will also drop in for themed nights in February, March, and April.
Ashley McBryde Announces New Music
More than two years after the release of her album The Devil I Know, Ashley McBryde dropped a new song, “What If We Don’t,” today (Jan. 23). McBryde co-wrote the “anthemic, larger-than-life plea” with Terri Jo Box and Randall Clay.
“‘What If We Don’t’ came to me, Terri Jo Box, and Randall Clay sitting around a fire pit on a back porch, reminiscing on all the moments that we could’ve made a different choice and wondering if we should’ve,” McBryde said in a statement. “It’s about the leaps of faith that you do or don’t take, and having to learn to live with those consequences either way.”
The song is a precursor to McBryde’s upcoming fifth studio album. And if the Grand Ole Opry member’s tearful reaction to some of the album’s rough mixes is any indication, it’s going to pack a (gut) punch.
“I’ve been here for every note, every syllable, every breath of this record—and I’m listening to the mixes and it’s like I’ve never heard this record,” she said in a video posted to social media on Dec. 30. “It’s like I’ve never heard this artist.”
Featured image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for ACM
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