The full tracklist is here. Ashley McBryde’s fifth studio album Wild is set to be released on Friday, May 8th, and we now have the official 11-song tracklist.
“We brought an entirely new approach to the studio every day, where we cut what spoke to us in that moment. No plan for an album, no timeline, no pressure – just me, John, the boys and a feeling.
These songs that have lived with us for years, and new songs that found their way to us and immediately felt like mine, they all started to outline the shape of a story I knew too well. They fell together to tell my story; I think that’s what happens when you let the Wild back in.”
So far, she’s released four songs from the album, including “Rattlesnake Preacher,” “Arkansas Mud,” “Bottle Tells Me So” and “What If We Don’t,” and despite the wild (pun very much intended) McBryde has experienced over the years, including the fact that her 2020 album Never Will being one of the only albums to be nominated for Country Album of the Year from the ACM, CMA, and Grammys all in the same awards season, Ashley found herself questioning whether it was worth it to keep making music at all.
Over the years, she’s been incredibly transparent with her struggle with alcohol addiction and her decision to get sober, and I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it (she got sober in June of 2022), but through the journey of rediscovering who she wants to be as an artist, Ashley revisiting the songs she’d once been told were too raw, too honest and would never be released.
She set them aside, knowing they were great songs that would one day be heard, because at the time, she was told she needed to be more “palatable” for mainstream listeners, but she never stopped playing them… she has mixed them into live sets here and there, but she explains on this album, it finally feels like she’s ready for the woman who wrote them to debut them to the world on an official album:
“At the time I was told I needed to be more palatable than what those songs were offering. I’ve kept them in my live show over the years, and I’m so thankful that I never cut them before this album. When I hear myself playing them now, I can finally believe the woman who’s singing.”
McBryde is a co-writer on six of the songs that span over 15+ years of songwriting, and the remaining five are outside writes that she fell in love with and knew she had to include on the Wild tracklist. Notably, there are no features from any other artists, so this is going to be completely, 100% McBryde.
It’s promising to be an incredible raw and real project that encapsulates the best parts of who she is as an artist in terms of being unapologetically authentic, and I can’t wait to hear the full tracklist on May.
She most recently released “Bottle Tells Me So,” which is a stunning track about her aforementioned struggles with alcohol and it’s a must-listen you can check out here:
“Bottle Tells Me So”
“Arkansas Mud”
“Rattlesnake Preacher”
You can view the full tracklist below.
Wild Tracklist
Rattlesnake Preacher (Randall Clay)
Arkansas Mud (Ashley McBryde, Jessie Jo Dillon, Chris Tompkins)
Water in the River (Randall Clay, Blue Foley, Roger Hodges)
Creosote (Ashley McBryde, Lisa Carver)
Bottle Tells Me So (Ashley McBryde, Shelly Fairchild, Terri Jo Box)
What If We Don’t (Ashley McBryde, Terri Jo Box, Randall Clay)
Lines In The Carpet (Lauren Hungate, Caroline Watkins, Lori McKenna)
Behind Bars (Jeff Hyde, Jessie Alexander, Jon Randall)
Hand Me Downs (Ashley McBryde, Jessie Jo Dillon, Laura Veltz)
Wild (Jeremy Spillman, Makayla Lynn, Matraca Berg)
Ten to Midnight (Ashley McBryde, Travis Meadows)
