Caitlyn Smith's HIGH & LOW Available Now on Monument Records

CAITLYN SMITH’S HIGH & LOW
AVAILABLE TODAY ON MONUMENT RECORDS
 
Self-Produced Third Album Arrives One Day After Smith Receives 
Nomination for ACM New Female Artist of the Year
 
Smith Sits Down with “CBS Mornings” to Discuss the 
Inspiration Behind the Record, Watch below

Monument Records’ powerhouse vocalist Caitlyn Smith arrives today with her self-produced album: High & Low, signaling the start of her “virtuoso creative era” according to The Tennessean. High & Low arrives after a week of celebratory moments and on the heels of Smith receiving a nomination for ACM New Female Artist of the Year. Listen HERE. 
 
“What a week! I’m both honored and grateful to be nominated for an ACM Award for ‘New Female Artist of the Year.’ What a joy it is to be in the company of such incredible artists,” shared Smith. “I moved to Nashville to chase this dream over a decade ago and to get that news the day before my third album drops is beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. This record is so personal and stepping into the producer chair for it was both terrifying and empowering, but I knew in order to grow I had to allow myself to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. I’m so excited to finally share it with the world." 
 
Smith sat down this morning with “CBS Mornings” to discuss the new project and the moments of vulnerability which inspired her to look inward for it. Watch the interview HERE.
 
For Smith, the making of High & Low represented a metamorphosis. Looking back, the award-winning songwriter realized she, as many do in the era of social media, had celebrated the “highs” of life publicly – while navigating the “lows” in private. Instead of showing vulnerability, it was easier to pretend everything was fine. But over the course of writing and producing High & Low, Smith learned to peel back the curtain, embracing all aspects of her life, including the “lows” she once held so close to vest. 
 
Smith recently kicked off her 2023 The Great Pretender Solo Tour, an unplugged, unaccompanied, unique arrangement in celebration of her new album. In partnership with DTour, the trek includes 15 independent venues across the country celebrating the stories behind the songs. Fender’s ‘Next Artist’ Alex Hall joins Smith as direct tour support. For tickets and more information visit CaitlynSmith.com.
 
DTOUR is a network of independent venues and promoters offering national artists locally owned, unique venue experiences across multiple markets. The partnership follows a history of supporting independent venues for Smith, who in 2021 teamed up with GRAMMY-nominated Old Dominion on the music video for her powerful song, “I Can’t,” to not only chronicle the desperate conditions many beloved live music venues faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but to encourage viewers to support the National Independent Venue Association by visiting togetherwecan.caitlynsmith.comto donate to NIVA’s Emergency Relief Fund.

The Great Pretender Tour:
April 18           Raleigh/Durham, NC     Cat’s Cradle
April 19           Charlotte, NC                 Visulite Theater
April 20           Atlanta, GA                    Vinyl
April 28           Davenport, IA                Raccoon Motel
April 29           Chicago, IL                    Avondale Music Hall
May 2              Pittsburgh, PA                Crafthouse Stage & Grill
May 3              Philadelphia, PA            City Winery Philadelphia
May 8              Boston, MA                   City Winery Boston
May 9              Portland, ME                 One Longfellow Square
May 26            Boise, ID                       The Olympic Venue
May 30            Salt Lake City, UT        The State Room
June 1              Denver, CO                   Fox Theatre
 
For more information, visit caitlynsmith.com.
 
About Caitlyn Smith
After winning a Critics Choice Award, earning a nomination for ACM New Female Artist of the Year and writing songs for the likes of Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Meghan Trainor and John Legend, Garth Brooks, Caitlyn Smith has established herself as one of Nashville’s brightest rising stars. Undeniably one of the best vocalists of this generation, Smith’s 2018 Starfire and 2020’s Supernova saw her in the pages of TIME Magazine and The New York Times, and had her named to Rolling Stone’s 10 country artists to know and Paste’s 10 country artists to watch. Smith’s self-produced High, was released in April 2022, with her follow-up effort High & Low due April 14 on Monument Records.

Ashley McBryde Invited to Become the Newest Member of the Grand Ole Opry on CBS Mornings

Arkansas Native Surprised by Invitation from Country Icon Garth Brooks on CBS Mornings

WATCH: McBryde with Pillbox Patti “Brenda Put Your Bra On” Performance on
NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers

AP opines Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville creates
“detail-rich storylines with a John Prine level of empathy and compassion”
and NPR praises, “a mischievous, and mightily pleasing,
departure from the prescribed progression of a mainstream country career”

While performing at the Grand Ole Opry a little over a year ago, current five-time CMA nominee and two-time winner Ashley McBryde shared with the audience, “I dream about joining the Opry and what that day will be like — Will I cry the entire time? Will I be seated? Who will ask me? I dream about that more than I dream about my wedding.” No longer dreaming about the special day, the Arkansas native has officially been invited to be the newest member of the revered Country institution by Garth Brooks on CBS Mornings. Watch the clip HERE.

“It would be the great joy and the great honor of my life,” McBryde answered through joyful tears. “There’s the GRAMMYs and there’s being a member of the Grand Ole Opry – they are the two greatest things that can happen to you as an entertainer. I’ve always said I will earn it, and this is a pretty surreal moment.”

On the heels of the release of critically acclaimed Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, McBryde took to NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers last night, Oct. 5, to perform the Outsider-dubbed “perfect introduction to McBryde’s wild little town,” “Brenda Put Your Bra On,” joined by album collaborator Pillbox Patti. Watch the performance HERE.

Cited by NPR as a “glorious detour into downhome character studies,” the four-time GRAMMY nominee and her collaborators leaned all the way in on Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, garnering applause from critics upon its debut.

Produced by John Osborne, Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville includes performances from McBryde, Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark, Aaron Raitiere, Patti, Caylee Hammack and Benjy Davis, with Rolling Stone calling it a “wildly inventive” album “about a group of people all living in a little town just trying to get by,” as Billboardobserves, “While the songs do center on life in a small town, the stories and characters in Lindeville dispel the idyllic nostalgia that permeates many songs currently staking their claims on the country charts.”

“McBryde and crew created detail-rich storylines with a John Prine level of empathy and compassion,” praises AP, while Variety notes, “The very existence of an album like Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville is enough to restore your faith in Nashville, however far afield it might have wandered,” making it “Country music’s most ambitious and oddball album in recent memory,” observes Esquire.

Celebrated by The New York Times as “a skilled curator, as well as a performer,” McBryde “has made abundantly clear over the course of her short but fruitful career, she is principally interested in peeling back the layers and speaking the truth,” boasts Vulture.

Summed up by Stereogum, “There’s a whole lot of beautiful writerly vision at work on Lindeville, but it wouldn’t matter if the songs weren’t great. Guess what? The songs are great… A lot of people put a lot of work into this record, and they made something that resonates on a deep, emotional level. Give it up for them.”

“When it comes out,” McBryde shared with Esquire, “I hope everybody laughs a little bit and I hope everybody says ‘What the f*ck?’ a little bit. Sometimes you look and realize, this town is such a mess, everybody here is a disaster. And in the same breath, in that same three minutes, everybody’s okay. And I love those times. Sometimes I wish I could make that stand still a little bit longer—we’re all a disaster, and it’s beautiful. And that’s true whether it’s a small town or a big city.”

Album lyrics and credits available HERE.

About Ashley McBryde
CMA and ACM award winner Ashley McBryde cut her teeth playing country songs in rural biker bars – and it shows. Her 2018 major label debut Girl Going Nowhere (Warner Music Nashville) charmed the New York Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, Paste, The Washington Post and more, all en route to landing a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album. McBryde closed out 2019 with ACM New Female Artist, CMT Breakout Artist of the Year, a New Artist of the Year win at the 53rd Annual CMA Awards and two nominations for the 2020 GRAMMYs for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for “Girl Goin’ Nowhere.” Her follow-up Never Will was tagged by Rolling Stone as one of the most anticipated of the year alongside NPR, who also ranked her Top 10 RIAA Platinum-Certified single “One Night Standards” as one of the best songs of 2019. Produced once again by Jay Joyce, Never Will reveals the witty, confessional, detail-driven songwriting addressing a wide spectrum of blue-collar Southern women’s experience introduced on Girl Going Nowhere is still here, but perhaps even sharper. The album earned McBryde a 2021 GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album, making Never Will the only album nominated for Country Album of the Year by the ACMs, CMAs and the Recording Academy in the same award season. Her critically acclaimed duet with Carly Pearce, “Never Wanted To Be That Girl,” went all the way to No. 1 and earned McBryde and Pearce the ACM award for Musical Event of the Year. McBryde earned five total 2022 CMA nominations including her third consecutive nod for Female Vocalist of the Year along with Single of the Year, Song of the Year, Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year for her duet with Pearce. The Arkansas-native invites listeners to Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville, a collaborative new project featuring Brothers Osborne, Brandy Clark, Pillbox Patti, Caylee Hammack, Aaron Raitiere and more. Praised by The New York Times as “a fluorescent carnival of pedal steel and thumping guitar that proves McBryde can be a skilled curator, as well as a performer,” Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville is available now. For more information, visit AshleyMcBryde.com or follow her at Facebook.com/AshleyMcBryde, Instagram and Twitter @AshleyMcBryde and TikTok @AshleyMcBrydeMusic.