Ashley McBryde Shares New Track, ‘Learned To Lie,’ Unveils Release Date For New Album, ‘The Devil I Know’

Ashley McBryde has warned fans to “buckle up” in preparation for her just-announced album, The Devil I Know, set for release on Sept. 8 via Warner Music Nashville.

She first previewed the forthcoming 11-track project while previously discussing one of her new tattoos, which features a red, devil-like figure that appears to be peering through a rearview mirror. After teasing the new music through this fresh ink, she took to social media to give fans a glimpse into the title track.

With her guitar in hand, McBryde sang, “A little outside of Elizabethtown / There’s a little bar where I’d sit down / And trade a couple country songs for Kentucky Bourbon / A little ol’ gal in the middle of the night /  Learning how to love and learning how to fight / Learning how to like my brand of hurting / Hell there’s hell everywhere I go / I’m just sticking with the devil I know.”

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The recently released song, “The Devil I Know,” finds the GRAMMY award-winner honing in on her traditional country roots while also keeping her jagged rock edge close by. With a bit of help from her band Deadhorse, the new project is also slated to straddle these genre-bending sounds.

“When it was time to put together The Devil I Know, my band and I did what we always do: got together in the purple building in East Nashville, played through a bunch of songs and discussed where we wanted it to go,” McBryde shared in a press release. “We decided to take all the things that people tend to give us a hard time for and turn it up.”

Despite all the conflicting feedback artists get from their listeners, McBryde is making it clear that she and her band are sticking to what they do best and they’re even taking things a step further by elevating their craft to brand new heights. 

 “‘Y’all are too country.’ We leaned into that – more country it is,” she continued. “‘Y’all are awfully rock leaning for a country artist.’ Is that so? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. ‘Last thing y’all need is another tender, finger pickin’ song.’ Oh? Tender makes you uneasy, cowboy? I hear you. Let’s see how much more tender we can be. We listened to all those opinions and said, ‘I hear you. I understand what you’re saying.’ But sadly, there’s no room on the record for your opinion. We’ll do what we want.”

Along with the announcement of the album, the Arkansas native unveiled a new track titled, “Learned To Lie.” Co-written by McBryde with Nicolette Hayford and Sean McConnell, the song depicts a broken household that instilled lessons of lying to protect your heart from the pain of watching someone she loves walk out the door.  

“‘Learned to Lie’ was a hard one; I wrote it with Sean McConnell and Nicolette Hayford,” McBryde reflects. “After it was written, I called my mom to let her know that I had told a little bit more of our story as a family. I said, ‘It’s going to be hard to hear, but none of it is untrue.’”

The mid-tempo tune features epic guitar solos, painfully honest words, and a melody that slowly builds before overflowing into the chorus as McBryde sings, “I learned to cry / Quietly I learned to pray / Silently inside a house where the devil played / And I hate that it runs in my blood / I hate how easy it comes / I wish I’d learned how to love the same way I / Learned to lie.”

This release follows her current chart-climbing single “Light On In The Kitchen,” which is also slated to appear on The Devil I Know. Sitting down with songwriters Connie Harrington and Jessi Alexander, McBryde penned the raw tune as a way to pay tribute to the strong woman in their lives who have proved that they will always remain in their corner, ready to offer advice at any given time. 

“When I tell someone there’s a ‘Light On In The Kitchen’ for them, to me it means you’re thinking of them, even if they’re not coming home that night,” she shared following the release. “While writing this, we were all able to look back and remember the women in our lives who comforted us, gave us advice and made sure we knew we had a place to go. Writing this song showed me how necessary that simple comfort had been.”

Ashley McBryde has a slew of headlining and festival dates in store for this year. Plus, later on, she will be joining Eric Church and Jelly Roll on tour. McBryde will serve as support on three dates of Church’s The Outsiders Revival Tour, and seven dates of Jelly Roll’s Backroad Baptism Tour. 

For a full list of McBryde’s upcoming tour dates, click HERE.

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The Devil I Know Track List:

1. Made For This (Ashley McBryde and Travis Meadows)
2. Coldest Beer in Town (Ashley McBryde, Autumn McEntire and Nicolette Hayford)
3. Light On In The Kitchen (Ashley McBryde, Jessi Alexander and Connie Harrington)
4. Women Ain’t Whiskey (Ashley McBryde, Hillary Lindsey, Jon Nite and Chris LaCorte)
5. Learned To Lie (Ashley McBryde, Nicolette Hayford and Sean McConnell)
6. The Devil I Know (Ashley McBryde, Jeremy Stover and Bobby Pinson)
7. Single At The Same Time (Ashley McBryde, Benjy Davis and Andy Albert)
8. Cool Little Bars (Ashley McBryde, Trick Savage and Lainey Wilson)
9. Whiskey and Country Music (Ashley McBryde, John Osborne and Lee Thomas Miller)
10. Blackout Betty (Ashley McBryde, Aaron Raitiere and Nicolette Hayford)
11. 6th Of October (Ashley McBryde, Blue Foley and CJ Field)