Ashley McBryde on Keeping Country Music Honest With New ‘Devil I Know’ Album: ‘I Don’t Sing Anything That’s Not True’

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “I don’t know when we decided to let people write songs about things that they don’t do,” says country star Ashley McBryde. “As far as the singer-songwriter sentiment, I don’t know when we stopped demanding that of ourselves.

Because I don’t sing anything that’s not true. And if I talk about having hoed a row, it’s because I have hoed a row.” There is not much row-hoeing, mind you, on McBryde’s new album, “The Devil I Know” — but there is a lot of bar-hopping and road-dogging, and more importantly, a lot of tender and tough emotions that ring up as thoroughly authentic.

Only five years into her recording career, she has come to be seen as such a hero in the country that it feels like she’s been around as a bulwark for at least twice that long, fortifying the music’s realness. “The Devil I Know” is only her third official release for Warner Nashville… not counting the conceptually ambitious various-artists side project she led last year, “Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville.” But the faithful already knew it would be one of the genre’s most satisfying efforts in 2023 even before she actually delivered on that promise with emotional ballads like her current single, “Light in the Kitchen,” pure barnburners like “Made for This,” or actual heart-destroyers like “Learned to Lie.” Prior to the album’s release Variety talked with McBryde (who just picked up four CMA Awards nominations, including her fourth straight nod for female vocalist of the year) about some of the highlights of “The Devil I Know” and her standard-bearer-ship in country music.