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Ashley McBryde On Hosting 2020 CMT Music Awards: 'Music Gives Us An Escape'

(CBS Local)-- The 2020 CMT Music Awards are on Wednesday, October 21 at 8 p.m. EST/PST and musician Ashley McBryde is one of the hosts of this year's very unique awards show. The singer-songwriter will be hosting remotely along with Kane Brown and Sarah Hyland.

McBryde has put out four studio albums during her country music career and in 2019 she won a CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Video Of The Year for her song "Girl Goin Nowhere." The GRAMMY nominated musician is honored to be involved with this year's CMT Music Awards because she believes the show comes at an important time for country music and our country.

Ashley McBryde - One Night Standards (Official Music Video) by Ashley McBryde on YouTube

"I think being able to host is one of the coolest things to happen to me so far in my career," said McBryde, in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "Even though it has been a really weird year, a lot of really cool things have happened. Things that wouldn't have been possible without us being off the road. I got to play Loretta Lynn's guitar the other day, which was really cool. Now I get to host the CMT Music Awards with Sarah Hyland and Kane Brown. Sarah and I wouldn't have been friends if this hadn't happened. I'm just really excited about it and CMT has put a lot of thought into it. We know a lot of it has to be pre-taped, but there is still a live aspect to it. They've put a lot of thought into making us feel normal. None of us are going to be around each other, but we still need to be able to interact. I think everyone at home will feel like this is an awards show."

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The show will air on CMT, MTV, MTV2, Logo, Paramount Network, Pop TV and TV Land. In addition to hosting, McBryde will also compete for Female Video of the Year with "One Night Standards," as well as CMT Performance of the Year with the same song. Music has been every more important for the country music artist during the pandemic.

"We're going to look back on every record that came out in 2020 and it's going to be the soundtrack for how we dealt with the pandemic," said McBryde. "Music does give us an escape. I would pick a record, pick a wine, pick a meal and would listen to the record top to bottom while cooking, which is how a record is supposed to be listened to. You forget how much thought goes into track one, the middle track and the last track. Even though it has been a nutty, rollercoaster year, I'm thankful I was able to remember how we're supposed to listen to music."

Watch McBryde and the rest of the action from the CMT Music Awards on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST/PST.

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