Ashley McBryde already has two CMA Awards under her belt, but she could soon walk away with three more. The Arkansas native won both New Artist of the Year in 2019, and Musical Event of the Year last year, for her “Never Wanted To Be That Girl” collaboration with Carly Pearce. Now, McBryde is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, for Lindeville, and Music Video of the Year, for “Light On In The Kitchen.”

“Being nominated in three categories, of course, feels great,” McBryde, who shares the Female Vocalist category with Pearce, Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert and Lainey Wilson, said at the CMA Awards rehearsal. “It’s always nice to be in categories with other women that I respect so much, and other artists that I respect so much. And I think we do a good job of trash-talking each other, like challenging each other, and still showing up for each other. So this is going to be a fantastic night.”

Not only will it be a night to remember, but it’s a night that at one time McBryde could have never believed would happen.

“I’ve just been thinking about it, and talking about it with my band recently, that there was a time when we were touring in my Toyota, and then we moved to a van,” McBryde recalled. “And then we moved to a van and a U-Haul trailer. And then it was a van and a trailer that somebody else owned … So we’ve been looking at our journey up to now.

“And to think that, right now,” she continued, “what I get to do, is dress fantastically and celebrate country music, with other people that are here to do it, that have been doing it, some not as long as I have, some longer than I have, it blows my mind. If I could go back and write this in one of my yearbooks from middle school, I totally would.”

McBryde will perform her current single, which is in the Top 25, and climbing.

“I’ll be performing ‘Light On In the Kitchen,’ which is a song I wrote with Connie Harrington and Jessi Alexander.,” McBryde revealed. “I loved it. And sometimes when you take a song and you hold it real tight like this, it doesn’t get to make the record. Not only did it make the record, it got to be the lead single from the record. And from the performance, I hope what you take away is a feeling of warmth, and a feeling of being invited into a moment, and I really hope somebody comes to mind when you hear it.”

Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning will host the ceremony, for the second year in a row. The 2023 CMA Awards will air live on Wednesday, November 8, at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.