Not phased by being out on a ‘work night,’ Stampeders once again packed out the Nashville North tent on Monday night to see Canadian country pop artist Madeline Merlo and Country rock icon Ashley McBryde.

Fans were out to see both artists in equal measures, with Merlo warming up the crowd good and proper. Her song, ‘Neon Love’, released in 2018, was met with the loudest screams and long-time fans singing all the words back to her.
Merlo’s band looked like they were having just as much fun as she was, encouraging fans to dance and join in. “Who here likes 90s country?” Merlo asked the crowd before she introduced her love letter to 90s country, ‘Tim and Faith,’ honouring the country music couple icon Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

Released in 2020 and contributed to her securing a record deal, ‘It Didn’t,’ has surpassed 10 million streams on Spotify and was an absolute crowd pleaser. That record deal opened many doors for Merlo, allowing her to follow her passion for songwriting as much as performing. She told fans about her journey into Nashville and proceeded to perform a Lady A classic, “Champagne Night’ that she cowrote.

Merlo left fans firmly warmed up and ready for Ashley McBryde, with anticipation running high while the band swapped over and prepared for their set.

McBryde opened with ‘Black Out Betty’ and moved into ‘One Night Standards’ and – excuse the cliché – the crowd went wild. In her signature bad-ass rock-chick leather trousers and t-shirt, McBryde poured her heart and soul into this performance.

‘Brenda Put Your Bra On’ has become a fun moment in the show, with bras flying onto the stage from her team and her fans, one landed precariously on the end of her bass player’s guitar and stayed there for the rest of the song.
Sharing as much of her personality as she did her music, McBryde offered little titbits between lyrics and an insight into her life between songs. With tracks like, ‘First Thing I Reach For,’ she gave opening stories about how she was so hungover she was told to stay where she was, so she wrote this song.

Having recently opened up about her relationship with alcohol, a lot of her music ties in with this chapter in her life, especially her latest album, ‘The Devil I Know,’ and her recent EP collections depicting the various members of her ‘family’.
And on the theme of family, that is the energy you get from McBryde and her band. Taking a moment to not only introduce her band but remind fans that ‘this’ doesn’t happen overnight, and it certainly doesn’t make you millions right off the bat. McBryde acknowledged each bandmember and their talent along with their jobs – mechanic, teacher, carpenter – telling fans that they were the band that played on her first song and they’ve been together ever since.
The ever emotive ‘Sparrow’ was a poignant moment – McBryde is so honest and raw in her lyrics about the conflicting feelings of success and loneliness, “higher than you’ve ever been, lonely like you’ve never been”. It was a shared moment between fans that inflicted feelings of empathy and togetherness that only McBryde knows how to do.

Coming back for an encore, she talked about the story behind the next song. Her and her band were hungover and complaining about everything, “the more we complained, the more the song came together”. ‘A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega’ saw crowds screaming and cheering even on the first beats, so much so that McBryde stopped and thanked fans, “that…that right there is why we do it”.

Ending on the eponymous album track, ‘Devil I Know,’ McBryde left it all out on the stage. Fans walked away feeling like they’d spent an evening catching up with an old friend and, me personally, I can’t wait to do it again.