Ashley McBryde got emotional marking the most solemn Easter in recent memory, singing “Amazing Grace” from the empty stage of Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium.
Recorded April 10 while the nation continues to struggle through its coronavirus crisis, the moving clip finds McBryde standing alone in the hallowed hall with, no audience to perform for. She begins the gospel classic with a smile but quickly has to stop, as the sad reality of the moment washes over her and steals her voice. Still she powers on through the tears, delivering a gut-wrenching performance that stands like a much needed musical prayer.
“I had the opportunity to honor all we’ve lost at @theryman this week and I tried my best…7 times in a row. I really tried…,” McBryde wrote on Instagram about the video.
“Some things just can’t be healed. Some losses can’t be reconciled and some wounds will never heal. Sometimes we don’t get closure the way we want to. All we can do is honor our predecessors and hope that we touch the hem of heaven sometime in our lives.
“I wouldn’t normally sing this song but we all may need this right now and there isn’t a better place to sing it at than the Ryman,” she went on. “The mother church pulls things like that out of you and will tell you what to sing and when to sing it…even if you can’t. Happy Easter, love to you all.”
McBryde’s second album, Never Will, came out April 3, and her current single “One Night Standards” has reached the Top 30 of country radio.
