Consumer Guide Album

Ashley McBryde: The Devil I Know [Warner Music Nashville, 2023]
McBryde's multi-artist 2022 concept album Lindeville, which for sheer playability I prefer to Tommy itself, was such a collective triumph I briefly forgot how remarkable McBryde is on her own, for instance on this year's digital Cool Little Bars EP, where every one of the five self-penned songs, all of which are also included on this album, is why I do this for a living: assuaging broken hearts in the title establishments, assuaging broken hearts in return for Kentucky bourbon at a less cool watering hole, sticking with your bad choices, living with learning to lie, the many shades of your mama's advice, hanging in there when you're one big break away. Not all of the six extras that fill out this 11-track album are quite up to their standard, although the impossible love song "Single at the Same Time" and the impossible sobriety song "6th of October" have a depth to them matched on the EP only by "Learning to Lie." Of course McBryde can sing--with impressive clarity and deliberation at that. But it's what she's singing that keeps you paying attention--even on the light-hearted ones, which are definitely there. A