Country to Country headliner Ashley McBryde talks ‘wild year’ and Grammy nomination for Girl Going Nowhere album ahead of festival at Glasgow’s Hydro
The American will be headlining the C2C main stage in March – and she’s bringing the whole 'kit and caboodle'
COUNTRY singer Ashley McBryde can’t wait to return to Scotland next month.
The American will be headlining the main stage at the Country to Country festival as it hits the Hydro in March – and she’s bringing the whole “kit and caboodle”.
Ashley said: “I’m really, really excited and my band has never been able to come with me to Glasgow, so I’m super excited for them to be able to experience the whole thing too. I can’t wait to be on stage with them and see their faces when they experience the fans.
“It’s wonderful. I told them yesterday, ‘I can tell you until I’m blue in the face how wonderful it’s going to be, and it still won’t prepare you’.”
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After appearing on the Spotlight Stage at the renowned country festival last year – Ashley is set to return to the Hydro with a bang.
The singer will join Chris Stapleton, Lyle Lovett, and Drake White & The Big Fire on the first day of the festival.
She told: “A lot of festivals I’ve done are so big that they can only have an artist every other year or every two or three years, so for me to be able to come back for the second year in a row is awesome.
“The first time, it was just me and the guitar, and this time they have invited me back and the whole kit and caboodle. So, I’m super stoked.”
It’s been a whirlwind of a year for the American – from performing with Jools Holland to a Grammy nomination for her debut album Girl Going Nowhere.
And while it’s set to be re-released this year, the singer still can’t quite believe the response to her debut.
She said: “Girl Going Nowhere has seen so much reaction it’s blown me away. I knew the song was special to me when I wrote it, but I didn’t know what kind of reaction other people would have to it, or that it would be so big and attract so many different people, young, old, men and women.
“It’s been a wild ride for Girl Going Nowhere.”
She added: “I was playing in Kansas, before the record even came out, and I had a young girl come up to me at the record table and tell me she wanted to be a Girl Going Nowhere.
“That was huge to me. To have someone so young say that, knowing that was a negative label I was given that I tried to turn into a positive one, and then of course Garth Brooks putting it on his live record didn’t hurt at all.”
The singer has only been growing from success to success and 2019 will see her go bigger than ever.
In April, the UK will see Ashley’s cameo in new film Wild Rose alongside Jessie Buckley and Julie Walters. The film, about a Scottish striving to become a country singer, will also feature music from the singer – who revealed she was ecstatic to take part in the film.
Ashley said: “It’s not out in the States yet, but I got to see it when I was in London back in October. I absolutely adored the film.
“The first time I came to C2C, I got a phone call asking if I’d mind making a cameo in this film and I was like, ‘that would be incredible!’. I asked them what they wanted me to do, and they told me they just me to be myself, and I’m pretty good at that so that wasn’t hard at all.
“I was pretty nervous about it, and then I saw the film and it was so good. I cried three times during that film and it was amazing to be a part of it.”
She added: “I’ve never really been in front of a camera in that way before, so it was pretty nerve-wracking. But as the credits started to roll, and I saw not only my name but my co-writers name in the credits that was the third time I teared up.”
After her stellar performance on the Spotlight Stage last year, Ashley will be returning to C2C on the main stage.
She said: “My first year at C2C, I played the Spotlight Stage in the area, and all the other smaller rooms in the O2 in London.
"And this year, we are one of the main acts and it’s really cool because we’re up there with Drake White, Lyle Lovett, and Chris Stapleton.
"But to come back and be on the main stage will be the main difference and we’ll have so much room to move around.
“On the Spotlight Stage, you only get 10 minutes but this year I get to do a whole set, we’ll performing the whole show.
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She added: “It really does fill my whole little heart up. I’m so proud to know that I got to come over for the first time to introduce our music to everybody, and that went over so well that not only do we get to do it again, but we get to do it on the main stage.
“It feels good to have earned that spot.”
Ashley McBryde will hit the Hydro at the Country to Country Festival on March 8.
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