Just because Ashley McBryde can, doesn't mean she wants to. In 2024, McBryde headlined her The Devil I Know Tour, a bucket list item for her. But now that she's done it, she realizes that she never wants to do it again.
Videos by Wide Open Country
"We built The Devil I Know show," McBryde recalls to Apple Music. "We knew we wanted to design a show that was perfect for theaters, because that's mostly where we are. And that means there are certain elements that we want to make sure are there. So we took out a lot of the talking elements, and let's replace that with more musical transitions, and see how that works. We did it all year."
It wasn't until the tour was completed that McBryde's band revealed what they missed about the way they constructed The Devil I Know Tour. Not surprisingly, McBryde agreed.
"The guys said, 'Okay, we did it,'" McBryde recounts. "'The thing that we set out to do, we did it. We wanted to do a very tailored, put-together show. Nailed it. Let's not keep going in that direction. Know what we miss? Bar Ashley. We miss being a bar band.'"
Ashley McBryde Opens Her Own Bar In Nashville
Ashley McBryde is opening her own bar in Nashville, called Redemption, where she will also perform four shows later this year. The fact that McBryde is opening a bar may not be newsworthy. But what she is offering - drinks for those who don't drink - is revolutionary in Music City.
McBryde's new Redemption bar, open on August 28, is inside Eric Church's Chief's venue.
"As someone who is three years sober, the typical response to 'Do you have anything non-alcoholic?' is either 'Why did you come to a bar if you aren't gonna drink?' or 'You can have soda water and a lime, I guess,'" McBryde says in a press release. "Some of my favorite places to socialize became wildly unaccommodating when the only thing that changed was what was in my cup.
"It was vital that I create a space where not drinking is the forethought - normalized," she adds. "You can get alcohol drinks in Redemption too, because everyone is welcome."
