It’s a great time to be an Ashley McBryde fan lately. If you haven’t been keeping up with the “One Night Standards” singer as of late, at the very end of December, she’d share a tearful video to Instagram and tell fans that she had just got done listening to her upcoming album. She explained that even though she’s written and been through every stage of the process with these songs, it still felt brand new and had her in tears, and she said that it was like she had never heard the music, or the artist:
“I just listened to ‘—‘ for the first time. It’s a rough mix, it’s not even mixed. And I had just listened to ‘Hand Me Downs,’ and I wrote the damn thing, me and Jessie Jo and Laura, I knew what was in that song. And then I listened to it, and I kept staring at the dash, like, why would you do that to me? I’ve been here for every note, every syllable, every breathe of this record.
And I’m listening to the mixes and it’s like I’ve never heard this record. It’s like I’ve never heard this artist.”
After announcing it back on January 13th, today, McBryde officially kicked off her new era of music with the re-recording of a fan-favorite track, “What If We Don’t,” which first appeared on her independently-released debut EP, Jalopies & Expensive Guitars, back in 2016.
In addition to the brand new track, she just started her eight-show residency at Eric Church’s Broadway bar, Chief’s, last night. If you recall, she announced that there will be three unique sets of shows during the residency,“Just Me and My Shadow,” an intimate acoustic session chalked full of stories behind her songs, “Postcards from Lindeville,” a set dedicated to her brilliant 2022 concept album of the same name and finally, “Mixtape from the Mixed Up Years,” which she describes as the “music that made us want to make music.”
She kicked everything off last night with the “Just Me and My Shadow” portion of the residency, and it did not disappoint. In addition to playing some of her best deep cuts, “What If We Don’t,” “Luckiest S.O.B.” and the title track for the residency as a whole, “Redemption,” McBryde would also deliver some killer covers throughout the show, including Garth Brooks’ “Papa Loved Mama” and the Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash’s, “I’ve Been Everywhere.”
Though many country fans recognize it as Cash’s song, it actually was first written back in 1959 by the Australian country singer, Geoff Mack. It would then be popularized by fellow Australian artist, Lucky Star, in 1962. Throughout the years, there have been seemingly dozens of different versions of the songs recording, ranging from a Great Britain and Ireland Version to a New Zealand version. Additionally, there have been even more, niche versions of “I’ve Been Everywhere” recorded, with Texas, Canada and more all getting their own renditions. Hanks Snow’s American version topped the country charts in 1962.
As for Cash’s version, it appeared on his 1996 album, America II: Unchained, and has remained as one of his most popular songs as of late, despite being a cover and being released quite late in his career.
Back to McBryde’s cover last night, before performing the track, she’d tell a hilarious story of getting offered $20 to perform a fan’s favorite Johnny Cash song. Thinking (and praying) it was something easy like “Folsom Prison Blues,” instead, she was blindsided by the request of none other than “I’ve Been Everywhere,” which is quite obviously a song that’s nearly impossible to memorize and play live, let alone off the top of your head after learning it.
“I was offered $20 one time to learn it, and I only had four hours to learn it. Is this embarrassing? Yes… If you’ve never heard me sing this song, you should be able to make fun of me for this.
“She said, ‘My favorite Johnny Cash song, I’ll give you $20 if you can play it tonight.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I have a smartphone, and now I have $20. Please say Folsom Prison Blues.’ And she says, ‘My favorite is I’ve Been Everywhere Man.’”
After crushing the opening into and chorus (the “easiest” parts of the song), she proceeded to flawlessly run through the first verse, amazingly hitting all 23 cities that are sandwiched in the single verse.
McBryde would pause for a moment after repeating the chorus for a second time, noting it took roughly two hours to fully memorize.
“That took two and a half hours to memorize. I only had two hours… Well, I don’t math, but it was less than two hours. And I didn’t know how to memorize the rest of it, so I just made up my own words.”
She’d then sing her own version of the chorus, which I’m sure killed it at whatever bar she was playing at during the story.
“I like every beer, man
I like every beer, man
Just bring one over here, man
It can be dark or clear, man
I’ll trade you my brassiere, man
If you buy me a beer”
To put icing on the cake, she then continued the beer theme for the second verse of the song. I’m genuinely not even sure how she managed to pull it off, but she proceeded to rattle off over twenty different beers. Starting off with the classics, Coors, Bud, Natty and Miller Lite, she’d then name the likes of Shiner Bock, Busch, Michelob and PBR, before wrapping up by calling one of the final beers “b*tch water.”
Not to be outdone, she’d use mixed drinks for the third chorus and verse. Once again rattling off over two different cocktails, she’d proceed to name-drop Bloody Marys, margaritas, mojitos, Long Island iced teas and many, many more. This is definitely one of those performances that are so incredibly fun that words hardly do it justice, so check out the full performance down below for yourself. You seriously don’t want to miss it.
