The Wild Jacket | Courtesy of AshleyMcBryde.com
Making Wild began at a moment of overwhelming uncertainty for McBryde. Despite the tremendous success she’d achieved through the years—including earning elite accolades for acclaimed albums like 2020’s Never Will, one of the only LPs ever to garner Country Album of the Year nominations from the ACM, CMA, and GRAMMY®s all in the same awards season—she found herself questioning whether it was worth it to keep making music at all.
In searching for a way forward, McBryde turned back, revisiting the songs she’d once been told were too much: too raw, too honest, too unvarnished for release. Initially set aside for their unsparing intensity, those tracks took on new resonance as her sense of self deepened. “At the time I was told I needed to be more palatable than what those songs were offering,” says McBryde. “I’ve kept them in my live show over the years, and I’m so thankful that I never cut them before this album. When I hear myself playing them now, I can finally believe the woman who’s singing.”
Tallying six McBryde co-writes and five outside songs spanning over 15+ years of songwriting, Wild slowly came together unlike any other record of McBryde’s career.
“We brought an entirely new approach to the studio every day, where we cut what spoke to us in that moment. No plan for an album, no timeline, no pressure – just me, John, the boys and a feeling,” she reflects. “These songs that have lived with us for years, and new songs that found their way to us and immediately felt like mine, they all started to outline the shape of a story I knew too well. They fell together to tell my story; I think that’s what happens when you let the Wild back in.”
Produced by Lindeville collaborator John Osborne (Brothers Osborne) and recorded with her live band, Deadhorse, Wild provides another exhibit of “McBryde’s exquisite lyrical portraits of human vulnerability and the ragged ways we move through this world” (No Depression), tracing a captivating narrative that culminates in the moment just before McBryde quit drinking.
Wild is previewed by early releases “Rattlesnake Preacher,” “Arkansas Mud,” most recent release “Bottle Tells Me So,” and McBryde’s current single to country radio, “What If We Don’t” – the #1 most-added single of the week upon impact, earning McBryde the biggest add date of her career. More announcements from Wild to come.
Pre-add / pre-save / pre-order Wild HERE. | 
