Daniel MeigsBefore Ashley McBryde shares her Never Will: Live From a Distance EP this spring, the singer is sharing her live version of one of the project’s most ferocious tracks, “Shut Up Sheila.”

A seething missive dedicated to the bossy “Sheila” who comes in between a family in mourning and their grieving process, the song takes on an extra-fiery element when Ashley performs it live against a backdrop of smoke and blue neon.

“There’s somebody in your family that you want to smack in the face and tell them to shut up,” Ashley told Rolling Stone back when her album, Never Will, arrived in April 2020. “But because we are from the South or we live in the South, we use our ‘company manners’ all the time. We don’t always get to ball that fist up and go, ‘Shut up!’”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible for Ashley to tour her new music after dropping Never Will, the six-song live EP offers a selection of songs from that project, performed in a live setting.

“Getting together to rehearse and record these live versions safely was our way of giving the fans a taste of what they would have seen had the world not changed so much,” the singer explained of making the new record.

Never Will: Live From a Distance arrives in full on May 28.

By Carena Liptak
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