Brooke McBride, a Carolina Music Award nominee and 4-time Charlotte Music Award nominee, will perform at The Dugout on May 23rd at 9:00 pm.
At only eight years old, Brooke picked up a guitar for the first time and while she started playing on the electric guitar, the deep, soulful tones of the acoustic guitar quickly made her fall in love with acoustic instruments and most importantly, country music. Growing up in and around her father’s family lumber business in rural North Carolina, Brooke quickly learned the values that are sung about in country music: family, southern hospitality, and hard work. By twelve years old, Brooke had written her first original song. No one ever told her how to write a song, she simply wrote what she felt and what was real to her, and the rest came naturally.
Since that time Brooke has written or co-written nearly 150 songs. When only a senior in high school, she received the honor of being a winner of the Wolf Radio’s Moment of Greatness Contest with her original song “Keep it in Drive.” In the fall of 2010, Brooke moved to Wilmington, NC where she attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington pursuing a marketing degree in hopes of gaining more knowledge of the business side of the music industry. During the week she would study, and on weekends she would load her little white mustang full of music equipment and play every festival and venue in North Carolina that would book her. She was soon presented many opportunities to play outside the state including being selected after performing at the Charlotte Music Awards in 2012 to compete in the Texaco Country Showdown in South Carolina backed by the radio station Interstate 107FM, and also playing on the WDVX Blue Plate Special radio show in Knoxville, TN.
Even with all of these opportunities, Brooke knew if she really wanted to be successful in the industry, she was going to have to make the infamous move to Nashville. A self-described “Gypsy soul that will always remember where home is,” Brooke packed her bags in January of 2013 and headed to Nashville, transferring to Belmont University as a Music Business major. Within the first year of being in Nashville she had been in a Brad Paisley CMA Promo commercial, a Darius Rucker GAC special, and a featured extra on ABC’s “Nashville.” Most recently, in Spring 2014, Brooke graduated Cum Laude from Belmont University.
Since the time Brooke arrived in Nashville, she has been working with producer, C Kim Shrum, recording her debut EP “Songs About Carolina.” “Songs About Carolina” features 5 original songs in which Brooke is the sole writer. Having played over a hundred venues over the past four years ranging from writers rounds, acoustic shows, full band shows, and award ceremonies, Brooke is only getting started with her touring, and is planning a summer/fall tour upon the release of “Songs About Carolina.”
The Dugout is located at 430 N Main St., Hendersonville, NC 28792. Contact 692-9262 for additional information.