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Ashton Shepherd has entered the country music scene with a voice that holds nothing back. It’s loud and full while possessing an uninhibited twang that is fairly uncommon in today’s mainstream market. When people hear Shepherd sing, they may be surprised to learn that such a mature sounding voice is coming from a mere 21-year- old. Moreover, when they hear her songs, it believably sounds as though she has lived a life well beyond her actual years.
The opening lines to her debut album, Sounds So Good, immediately inform us that we’re not in for the typical commercial country music fare. Instead, we’re about to hear an album with fresh and clever grit. With unabashed twang, she sings: “I’ve got a cold beer in my right hand/In my left I got my weddin’ band/I been wearin’ it ’round now for way too long/And I’m more than ready to see it gone/And I’m the only one who can set myself free/So I’m takin’ off this pain you put on me.”
In songs like “I Ain’t Dead Yet” and “Not Right Now”, she addresses the guilt that women commonly feel as a result of the societal expectations that are placed upon them. “I Ain’t Dead Yet” insists that while she embraces being a mother and wife, there is more to her than those roles: “I like a cold beer and a long dirt road/And listenin’ to some Keith Whitley on the radio/Don’t mean I ain’t a good mama/Don’t mean I ain’t a good wife/I’m just like everybody else who needs a break from time to time/And I know my obligations/And believe me, they are met/I may be getting’ older, but I ain’t dead yet.” Likewise, “Not Right Now” acknowledges that she likes to drink and party, despite what people expect of her as a woman: “I ain’t supposed to want to do a lot of drinkin’/Least that’s what a lot of folks keep thinkin’/I ain’t supposed to stay out ‘til all hours in the mornin’/I’m supposed to be a young lady.”
“The Pickin Shed”, “The Bigger the Heart” and “Sounds So Good” are more lighthearted songs that, much like so many of the other songs on the album, embrace a traditional sound that compliments Shepherd’s voice very well.
While the album is replete with very good material, “How Big Are Angel Wings” and “Regular Joe” are a couple of songs that stand out as unoriginal and fall into the trap of the generic format that often befalls Nashville these days. Even those songs, however, captures a sincerity that Shepherd so naturally conveys with her honest delivery.
Sounds So Good is a solid debut effort from an artist who will hopefully continue to make an impression on country radio and its listeners. Her strong voice, intriguing songwriting and traditional leaning should be afresh and welcome addition to country music.
Ashton Shepherd loves an opportunity to mix business with pleasure. Her new video for the second single from her debut album, “Sounds So Good” features members of her family and friends and is shot at a close friend’s home. Ashton had fun shooting the video, but was really excited about how special and personal it was: “Making the video for “Sounds So Good” was just a blast. I had a lot of fun making my last video but the cool part about the “Sounds So Good” video is that I got to invite my family and my mama and daddy were there and my husband’s parents and my husband and I are riding in the jeep together. My little boy’s in it. We’re actually at a friend of our’s place that we often go to fish and everything, so the place we were at is a very familiar place to us and means a lot to us. So it just has such a personal value to it and a connection. So when you see all the people sitting around in the video and me holding a little boy, that’s my little boy and that’s my family sitting around, so it
really meant a lot to get to shoot that video at home and have that much personal, relatable stuff in it.” Listen to Ashton tell it.
“Ladies of Country Deliver at Thunder”
By Christian Scalise
Ashton Shepherd Review
Sit back, relax, and close your eyes; you’ll hear the sweet sounds of country singer/songwriter Ashton Shepherd. The MCA Nashville recording artist made her debut appearance at Country Thunder USA Thursday afternoon.
Beginning around 3pm, Ashton took the stage wearing a pair of denim jeans with a baby blue sleeveless top.
Ashton opened her set with “Not Right Now” a heart wrenching tune that captured the audience. Shepherd’s traditional style and pure honesty make her a perfect fit in the country music family. Her down home personality and feisty song selections are reminiscent to the likes of country royalty Loretta Lynn!
“I Ain’t Dead Yet” an anthem for all housewives reached out to the women in the audience with its honky-tonk style and catchy lyrics.
Fans clapped along on Ashton’s rowdy performance of the twangy, “The Bigger The Heart.”
Ashton’s material consisted mostly of songs she wrote herself. There were various covers of country standards such as “Fishin’ In The Dark” by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
“Sounds So Good,” Ashton’s current single, received a great response from the crowd. Ashton’s vocals soared on the performance!
Closing out her show, Ashton encouraged the audience to join her on her performance of her first hit single, the tongue-in-cheek up-tempo, “Takin’ Off This Pain.”
Meet Ashton Shepherd! Discover this fantastic new country music artist and enter our sweepstakes to win an autographed copy of her debut album "Sounds So Good," an Ashton Shepherd autographed guitar and a $500 (US) Wrangler Jeans And Shirts gift certificate!
Click here to read more and enter!
CLICK HERE to read this stellar review from rock critic Ken Tucker on NPR.org.
THE SUPERSTARS OF COUNTRY MUSIC AND THE CRITICAL PRESS ARE DRAWN TO THE AUTHENTICITY OF ASHTON SHEPHERD AND SOUNDS SO GOOD
SHEPHERD IS ANNOUNCED AS THE OPENING ACT
ON SUGARLAND’S LOVE ON THE INSIDE TOUR
(Nashville, TN) Many artists in the music community are gravitating to the authenticity of Ashton Shepherd and her music. Here is what they are saying:
Keith Urban - “I heard ‘Sounds So Good’ and went out and bought the album. I must have played this song eight times consecutively and I knew I was listening to a piece of classic, country perfection.”
Sugarland (Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush) - “Ashton's natural talent as a songwriter, a singer, and as a performer is about to come crashing down on country music. We believe she just raised the bar for every new country artist on the planet.”
Miranda Lambert - “The first time I heard Ashton Shepherd’s voice, it's like she reached out of the radio and grabbed me. Within the first 10 seconds of the song you know it’s her. I think that is what sets her apart as an artist and will make for a long, strong career. I love that in her music you hear her life and the down home feel of her lyrics. She is perfectly unpolished. The fact that she is a redneck, beer drinkin' chick from Alabama, I mean what’s not to love? I'm a huge fan!”
“Receiving such amazing comments from other artists is the biggest compliment I could ever receive as a singer/songwriter,” says Ashton. “I started singing as soon as I could talk and I’ve been writing songs as long as I can remember. I can’t even tell you how much it means to me when these huge superstars tell me they like my music. It’s just unbelievable! I keep having to pinch myself.”
Ashton co-wrote 10 of the 11 tracks on Sounds So Good, produced by award-winning songwriter Buddy Cannon. “The simplicity of her songs communicates sincerity,” says Cannon, “and other artists recognize that and appreciate it.”
The critical press recognizes Ashton’s raw talent as well. Here is what they are saying:
USA Today – “Shepherd balances a fondness for music, motherhood and alcohol with a deep drawl and a straight-forwardness learned from the likes of Loretta Lynn.”
Entertainment Weekly – “Shepherd’s CD is the best mainstream country debut since Taylor Swift’s in 06.”
Blender – “Sounds So Good sounds so familiar that it comes to feel utterly distinctive – which is the genius of Ashton Shepherd’s debut.
Billboard – “There are debut albums and then there are debut albums that serve notice that the landscape has changed.”
American Songwriter – “She sings with a distinctly rich, lower-Alabama drawl that will grip you from the outset and make you proud to be a country music fan.”
Just announced yesterday, fans will be able to see Ashton performing her self-penned songs all across the country as the opening act for Sugarland’s LOVE ON THE INSIDE tour, which begins on September 13 in Asheville, NC. “What a dream come true to be on such a great tour with superstars like Sugarland. Jennifer and Kristian are incredible entertainers and I’m honored to be given this chance. I am just thrilled!”
Ashton will be joining Sugarland on their 25 city nationwide LOVE ON THE INSIDE tour. The tour will kick off in Asheville, NC on September 13. Catch Ashton live on tour in a city near you to hear her perform some of the songs from her critically acclaimed debut album, Sounds So Good
TOUR DATES
9/13 Asheville, NC Asheville Civic Center
9/14 Wilmington, NC Trask Colesium
9/19 Mashantucket, CT MGM Foxwoods
9/20 Atlantic City, NJ Mark G. Etess Arena
*9/21 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
*9/26 Bloomsburg, PA Bloomsburg Fair
*9/27 W. Springfield, MA Eastern States Exposition
9/28 Gilford, NH Meadowbrook
10/2 Ames, IA Hilton Coliseum @ IA State Center
10/3 Stillwater, OK Oklahoma State University
*10/10 Columbia, SC South Carolina State Fair
10/11 Roanoke Rapids, NC Carolina Crossroads Outdoor Amphitheatre
*10/12 Perry, GA Reaves Arena
10/16 Verona, NY Turning Stone Resort & Casino
10/17 Rochester, NY Blue Cross Arena
10/18 Erie, PA Erie Civic Center Complex
10/23 Tupelo, MS BancorpSouth Arena
10/24 Evansville, IN Roberts Stadium
10/25 Lexington, KY Rupp Arena
11/6 Jacksonville, FL Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
11/7 Kissimmee, FL Silver Spurs Arena @ Osceola Heritage Park
11/8 Fort Myers, FL Lakes Regional Park
11/14 Lafayette, LA Cajundome
11/15 Beaumont, TX Ford Arena
11/16 Bossier City, LA CenturyTel Center
When singer songwriter Ashton Shepherd is not on the road, she can be found in the “pickin’ shed” behind her home singing and playing guitar. With her smooth southern twang, and inimitable sound you do not want to miss her perform the new single, "Sounds So Good," and "Takin' Off This Pain" in an exclusive Unplugged at Studio 330 performance.
Ashton Shepherd’s second single from her debut album is also the title track and is perfect for the summer. Describing the sounds of a cooler slushing and crickets in the woods, Ashton wrote the song because it hits home for her: “It’s just the way it is. As a matter of fact, we live by a small beaver pond and every night inside my house, I can be in the kitchen and you can hear crickets as if you were outside. So that is what we hear and that is what we do so it really means a lot for that song to be hitting home with so many people because it hits home with me so well.” Hear Ashton tell it.
Ashton has been busy filming the music video for her new single "Sounds So Good." Staying true to her roots, Ashton took a trip out to the lake to film. Click HERE to check it out. After you watch the video, don't forget to call your local radio stations and request "Sounds So Good."
No twang? No problem
By Alison Bonaguro
Before Jack Ingram took the stage, rookie artist Ashton Shepherd opened the show with her own 45-minute set of self-penned songs that are destined to be the anthems of young motherhood. This Alabama native has a sunny way of singing about laundry, dirt roads, no-good husbands and pints of Crown Royal. And she showed no signs of new-girl nerves or stiffness. She looked so at ease on stage—belting her lyrics so flawlessly—that it was almost as if we'd caught her singing into her bedroom mirror. When performing comes that naturally, the stage is set for a lifetime of great gigs.
Ashton just released her new single to radio, the title track, “Sounds So Good,” from her debut album. Call your local radio stations now to request “Sounds So Good.” CLICK HERE to listen to more songs from SOUNDS SO GOOD.
Ashton recently did an exclusive interview with Roughstock.com - check out that interview here!
The FACM (French Association of Country Music) recently announced the nominees for the 6th annual French Country Music Awards and Ashton Shepherd received 3 nominations!! Ashton has been nominated for BEST FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR, BEST NEW TALENT OF THE YEAR & BEST SONG OF THE YEAR ("Sounds So Good"). Fans will vote during 13th Equiblues Country Music Festival in St Agrève France (August 14th to 17th). CONGRATULATIONS ASHTON!
Nick Hilbourn, Morning News
Published: June 6, 2008
Ashton Shepherd might agree that Marion is no metropolis, but she certainly wouldn’t call it small.
The 21-year-old singer-songwriter performing at this year’s Marion Country Music Fest hails from the small community of Coffeeville, Ala. with a population of 360 people.
“It’s very laid back and fun,” she said. “(In a small community like Coffeeville), you have a special bond with people.”
She said that she grew up listening to, pretty much, the music to which her family listened.
“My daddy was a very traditional country fan,” she said. “I had two big brothers (and) they constantly kept Merle Haggard, George Jones and Keith Whitley (on the radio).”
She had written and sang songs all her life, but she didn’t pick up a guitar until she was 15.
“I had a big chord sheet,” she said. “My brothers never showed me how. I was very independent.” She had been writing songs long before she started playing guitar and by the time she began performing seriously, she had close to 120 songs written, some of them when she was an early teenager.
Shepherd got her start in a local country band that was familiar to her brother. Consequently, the band was how she met her husband.
“My brother had known my husband,” she said, and he had “overheard my husband and his brother say they needed a lead singer, and my brother said, ‘You should hear my sister sing.’”
What came roaring out of Shepherd was the bare-bones country she had heard in her youth. Her strong, yet feminine vocals captured the attention of locals and, eventually, record executives, landing her a record deal.
It was a rush, she noted, but it’s something to which she’s grown accustomed.
“It really has become common for me to do,” she said. Giving interviews, doing television and radio shows, she said, aren’t that big of a deal anymore. “It’s my job,” she said.
She still does housework, still works on the farm and she believes that’s what she’s trying to convey to listeners.
“I try to be relatable. I don’t try to send a message across,” she explained. “I just hope that whoever is driving down the road, listening to me, turns up the song.”
Ashton Shepherd’s second single is climbing the country charts, but her first is still hitting a chord with fans. During the performance of Ashton’s first top 20 single, “Takin’ Off This Pain” at the Turlock County Fair near Modesto, CA on Saturday, a woman threw her diamond engagement ring up on stage. It was later found by Ashton’s rhythm guitar player sitting next to Ashton’s guitar upon load out and given to radio station personnel to locate the owner.
Ashton Shepherd’s new single, “Sounds So Good” is the perfect summer anthem and fans will be able to hear her sing it live when she tours this summer. Since Ashton is a new artist, she hasn’t had the experience of touring and is quite excited. She’ll be opening for different artists and is thrilled about what a diverse audience will get to see her live: “I’m really excited about touring this summer because it’s going to be my first chance to actually be on a bus and be out on the road. I’ve been doing radio tours for a while now, so it’s going to be something different for me and a good experience to get out there and be in front of a crowd every night. The cool part about it is I’ll be in front of different crowds because I’m opening up for different artists. I’m opening up for Sugarland some this summer, and Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, so it’s going to be really neat to get to be in front of all those different audiences. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never gotten to do that before, so it’s going to be real exciting.” Hear Ashton tell it.
Congratulations to Ashton on being chosen by the fans as the new FRESH FACE OF COUNTRY MUSIC. Thanks to all the fans who voted. The story will be featured in the next issue of Country Weekly. Lisa Kielas (pictured above) was the lucky sweepstakes winner who got to meet Ashton in Las Vegas.
Next-Gen Country Stars - ASHTON SHEPHERD
By Melinda Newman
Ashton Shepherd, 21, is also resonating with younger fans. The debut album, "Sounds So Good," from this Alabama traditionalist came in at No. 16 on the Top Country Albums chart. Her first single, "Takin' Off This Pain," peaked at No. 20 but introduced the country world to a singer far more versed in the world of Dolly and Reba than Mariah: Before a fluke interview landed her a Nashville recording contract, Shepherd was a young housewife and mother who wrote her songs in her backyard shed, and cut her performing teeth in local bars. The resulting authenticity of her music thus speaks both to peers and an older country generation. (Universal Music Group, Nashville)
"Sounds So Good"
Songwriter: Ashton Shepherd
“Sounds So Good,” Ashton Shepherd’s second single and the title track of her debut album, is best compared to the Randy Travis standard, “Deeper than the Holler.” Both songs address the dominant radio theme of the day – undying love in Travis’s classic and country living in Shepherd’s single – in the laundry list form that has become familiar to contemporary radio listeners. Neither employs narrative structure, recoloration, lyrical reveals or even complex imagery. In the hands of many writers and most singers, these choices make for bland and forgettable radio singles or album filler, but Randy Travis and Ashton Shepherd are not most singer-songwriters.
Sincerity courses and pulsates through this song. Just as Travis described love in the only words that a country boy understands, Shepherd lovingly sings her life’s soundtrack in a voice imbued with honest, lived experiences. It’s difficult to hear where Shepherd’s life experiences end and her exceptional vocal ability begins: I don’t doubt that Ashton has pulled more than one beer out of a slushly, makeshift cooler, but her Alabama drawl makes every bent syllable even easier to believe. When this vocal is overrlaid on Buddy Cannon’s Telecaster-rich production it sounds like a country record and, appropriately, just sounds so good.
ALBUM REVIEW:
ON THE HORIZON - Ashton Shepherd
by Douglas Waterman
She sings with a distinctly rich, lower-Alabama drawl that will grip you from the outset and make you proud to be a country music fan. She’s a songwriter too, and has been for quite a while—probably long before she even knew what one was.
“I remember writing a song about my brother who was in the Army—but my brother wasn’t really in the Army,” Ashton Shepherd says over breakfast at Nashville’s Portland Brew. “I’ve always kept a notepad around, and I was always humming around the house and writing. My mom used to write a lot too. I was eight years old and was outside one day writing a song called ‘The Rest of My Life.’ It was about a wife who had lost her husband. I came in and sang it for my mom. It went something like [recites], ‘I got up this morning/poured two cups of coffee/one for you and one for me/But once again I forgot you were gone…’ You know, like the woman was in her regular routine. Come to think of it, I got the idea from something my mom had mentioned writing about when she was little. Mama almost cried. She said, ‘Where is this coming from?’”
For Shepherd, the singing came first, and about as early as one could imagine. Her mom wasn’t the only family member to recognize something brewing in the way of the youngster’s imagination and musical curiosity.
“My brothers used to bring a tape recorder into my room when I was about three. They would tell me the recorder’s going to sleep…and to sing for it. I always said when I was little that I wanted to fly, and they said to sing, and I’d be able to fly. They just wanted to get me singing into the recorder. So I’d sing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and then ‘There’s a Tear in My Beer,’ right after.
After cutting her teeth on Hank Sr. and lullabies, Shepherd fell in love with Patsy Cline, learned her songs, then started singing Martina and Shania hits at local karaoke joints, played fairs and festivals, entered country showdowns, recorded an album in Fort Payne, Ala. (1,000 copies pressed) and met her husband-to-be, Roland.
“When I met my husband, he had a little four-piece band,” she recalls. “I joined the band. I was 16 at the time, and it broadened my horizons tremendously. I was doing ‘Play That Funky Music White Boy,’ ‘Simple Man,’ ‘Fishin’ In the Dark’…playing rhythm guitar and singing bar-band songs. I was covering male songs that were really cool for a girl to do. I learned a lot during that time.”
Defying—with flying colors—Nashville’s widely held prerequisite that it takes 5-12 years for any artist or songwriter to make any headway, Shepherd cut a demo, got signed to a major label (MCA) and released her debut album in just more than a year-and-a-half since she stepped foot on Music Row.
Sincerely charming, well-grounded and mighty mature for a 21-year-old, Ashton Shepherd remains firmly planted in Coffeeville, with a two-year-old at home and her husband’s family farms to help harvest come picking time. She knows the music biz isn’t for the faint of heart, and she’s already set her priorities in advance—in preparation for a long and healthy career.
“I think I have the [music career] drive that other people do,” she says, “but I also know I have a conscience that says, ‘Ashton, what’s it going to be like when this happens. What’s this going to be like on your family?’ I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do this…and remain myself. It’s been a total life swap for me, because I went from being a stay-at-home mom and the biggest homebody there ever was…I’m a country music singer full-time and a mom too!”
Having given some thought to her mom’s aforementioned “Where is this coming from” query about her writing, Shepherd cuts to the point. “It’s God-given,” she says in a wondrous, humbled tone. “There’s not a routine or schedule or self-taught mechanism about any of it, because I don’t remember teaching myself or being taught. There were no lessons. It feels natural…I just thank God for it.”
CLICK HERE FOR AN EXTENDED Q&A with Ashton Shepherd
Posted: May 2nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm | By: Alison Bonaguro
I thought I knew Ashton Shepherd. But now, I realize there's another side to her. I know this, because I've just seen the second video for her debut single "Takin' Off This Pain." The first one was the epitome of a Shaun Silva video.
It captured the pure country storyline of guy-gets-girl, girl-realizes-she-is-so-much-better-off-without-guy, girl-leaves-guy. Complete with the slamming of the rickety screen door and the furious packing of the suitcase (with clothes ripped down from the clothesline).
It seems accidental, as if some people were goofing around with a video camera during an impromptu visit down to her hometown of Leroy, Ala. Her hair's in a ponytail, her son's wandering around, and the set could very well be the Pickin' Shed she sings about on her new album. The credits at the end of the video list Becky Fluke, one of the best photographers in Nashville, and Danny Clinch, another outstanding portrait guy.
In a perfect world, record labels would always make two videos for every single. That would get kind of pricey, I know. But for a new artist, it sure does show you both sides. If, in fact, they have two sides.
In Shepherd's case, it shows the video-viewing world that she's not just a one-dimensional country music puppet. She sounds just as good on the slick video as she does on the down-home one. And anyone willing to go on camera in a baggy T-shirt and a messy ponytail has to be about as genuine as they come.
On April 21st, Ashton performed her debut album’s title track “Sounds So Good” on Good Morning America’s spring concert series.
Photo L-R: Diane Sawyer, Ashton Shepherd
Photo credit: Becky Fluke
ERNEST JASMIN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Last updated: April 18th, 2008 01:23 AM (PDT)
Many of you saw rising country crooner Ashton Shepherd perform her big hit “Takin’ Off This Pain” during the CMT Music Awards broadcast Monday. And the next day she gave me a ring to share a few of her behind-the-scenes experiences, just days before today’s scheduled appearance at the Puyallup Fair & Events Center.
“It was really awesome,” the 21-year-old Coffeeville, Ala., native said. “Keith Urban had asked to meet me, and we got to talk to him and Nicole Kidman for a while at length. And he talked about really liking my record and stuff, and that was just really surreal.
“I got to meet Kenny Chesney for the first time, and he came up and shook my hand and told me he enjoyed my performance,” she added. “So at moments like that you can’t even describe it. You grow up listening to people, and you hear them on the radio, and you watch their careers. And it’s just amazing to have them speak to you about your career and your music.”
Of course, it might not be long before other fledgling stars are saying the same sorts of things about Shepherd. Seattle’s KMPS-FM (94.1) – the sponsor for today’s free concert – has had “Takin’ Off” in heavy rotation. And since it was released last month, Shepherd’s debut album, “Sounds So Good,” has generated the sort of buzz reserved for new superstars Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert in recent years.
But success didn’t come overnight. Shepherd has been honing her songwriting chops since grade school. She recalled shocking her family with a tune she wrote at 8.
“It was called ‘The Rest of My Life,’” she said. “I made it up about a woman who didn’t have her spouse any more. I just totally made it up. And that’s why my momma, she literally almost cried and ran and got the tape recorder and said, ‘Where are you coming up with this?’
“She was just blown away, and really it surprised me. My big brothers were excited, and they helped me write it down on paper and print it up. And I still remember it now.”
Shepherd started writing in earnest after she picked up the guitar at 15. And her big break came after she won a contest.
“I had sent my information in to try to enter a Colgate Country Showdown,” Shepherd recalled. “I hadn’t entered one in five years or so because I’d kind of gotten a little depressed about ’em and didn’t think I’d ever win any.”
But she did and got to open for country star Lorrie Morgan. That gig lead to a three-song demo recorded by a member of Morgan’s band. “Then that demo got spread all over Nashville,” Shepherd said, “and I met the right people at the right times after that. It wasn’t a matter of five months after I made that demo that I was offered a record deal.”
But after we covered her background, I had to ask her about something that’s been on my mind for a while. The narrator of her hit “Takin’ Off This Pain” declares “I’ve got a cold beer in my right hand / In my left I got my wedding band” in the opening couplet. Meanwhile, you’ve got Taylor Swift burnin’ her ex’s pictures, and Miranda Lambert turning the revenge meter up several more notches with some “Gunpowder & Lead.”
So why are the women of country so ticked off these days?
Shepherd laughed, admitting there is something going on there. But “you know, I think with me it wasn’t really planned,” she said. “That was just a song we felt grabbed people because it was so in charge from the time it comes on.”
And she made it clear she’s not following a trend. “My song’s been on the charts now for a while,” she said. “So it came out before (Swift’s) ‘Picture to Burn’ and all those songs. But, of course, Taylor Swift moves up the charts faster than me. She’s a great lady. We met her last night. … She seems to be a fan, which is awesome. She’s a really sweet girl. I love her stuff.”
If you miss today’s performance, you can also look for Shepherd on “Good Morning America” on Monday and on the “Grand Ole Opry” radio show April 26. She also plans to shoot a video for her second single next month and have it done in time to start touring in June.
Regarding her choice for single No. 2: “We’re still taking some things into consideration, but we feel like ‘Sounds So Good’ is a good summertime song.”
LIVE REVIEW:
“So y’all are probably used to this kind of weather,” said rising country star Ashton Shepherd, performing outside at the Puyallup Fair & Events Center on a chilly Friday evening. She hails from the much warmer climes of Alabama and spoke with a southern fried drawl. And some of the few hundred fans assembled to see her first Washington performance let her known that this frigid spell wasn't representative of a typical April here. “So I just brought it with me, I guess,” Shepherd joked. So there you have it. Blame Ashton Shepherd as you shiver yourself to sleep tonight. But three's no blaming her performance, which was fairly impressive during a 40-minute set that included “I Ain’t Dead Yet,” “Pickin’ Shed” and “Regular Joe” among other songs from her debut album, “Sounds So Good.” She has a big, booming voice that reminded me of Dolly Parton at moments. My favorite song was actually “Lost In You,” a rolling ballad she said she’d written years before meeting her husband, but one that “sure applies to us now.” But the song that really got fans on their feet was, of course, “Takin’ Off This Pain,” the hit many her perform on the CMT Music Awards Monday night. Before the song Shepherd’s guitarist leaned toward her, suggesting a new name for the five-piece band. “Curtis just said they might wanna be called the Painkillers,” Shepherd said. Works for me. But don’t be surprised if you start getting offers to appear at Ozzfest if you go that route, Ashton. .
ERNEST A. JASMIN
by Shane Tarleton
Ever wonder how the divas of country always have perfect hair? For Ashton Shepherd, it's all about a healthy hair regimen. The "Takin' Off This Pain newcomer tells CW her secrets from the road and gives her take on hotel shampoo. "They are OK in a fix," she admits, but prefers Garnier Fructus products. To prevent damage, she chooses to slow-dry her hair and scrunch it, which gives her a "fixed but messy look." Ashton notes, "I rarely use the curling iron anymore."
*Check out the full story in the upcoming issue of Country Weekly, on stands May 5th*
Who's the new Fresh Face Of Country Music? VOTE NOW for Ashton as Country Weekly's "Fresh Face Of Country Music" and you could win a trip for 2 to Las Vegas! One Grand Prize winner will win a 3 day/2 night trip for two to the 2008 Academy of Country Music Awards live in Las Vegas. The winner will also get a special meet & greet with the country star who receives the most votes as country's fresh face. CLICK HERE NOW to vote for Ashton!
** ENTER ONCE PER DAY until the final deadline of Friday, May 2nd, 12pm CT!! **
By BEVERLY KEEL • April 20, 2008
At Monday's 2008 CMT Music Awards, Keith Urban put out the word that he wanted to meet country newcomer Ashton Shepherd before the night was over.
He bought her debut album, Sounds So Good, and was so bowled over by it that he wanted to tell her so in person.
She was invited onto his bus, where she met Keith and Nicole Kidman. Keith told Ashton that he felt the same way when listening to her album as he did when he discovered Randy Travis' debut project.
"That was really unreal, to be standing there and talking to him and talking about liking my records so much," Ashton says. "It was a special moment and something I will never forget."
Surreal experiences have become almost a daily event for Ashton because of the overwhelmingly positive response to her debut CD, which Blender magazine calls "genius."
"Probably some of the most special moments were at the Opry when I played for the first time," she says. "Bill Anderson gave me such praise and pulled me back onstage. Little Jimmy Dickens said it sounds like I'd never heard a pop song in my life."
Ashton, 21, sings live on ABC's Good Morning America at 8:45 a.m. Monday, a major feat for any new artist. But it's even bigger for Ashton because she's never been to New York before. The resident of Leroy, Ala., leaves today for the Big Apple.
"It's going to be fun," she says. "I'm not sure what to expect, really. I've been told a lot of things. I think everybody takes every place in a little differently, so I'm just waiting to get there to make my own judgment."
She got a little practice performing live on national television on the CMT Awards. "The good thing is, I'm pretty able to push out the fact that there are millions of people watching at home. You kind of forget
that.
"When you are performing, you just focus on, 'I don't want to mess up. I want to sing the best I can.' Even when you look at the cameras, you can't comprehend so many people watching."
Ashton had her first live national TV performance at this year's CMT Music Awards!
Shepherd is the beneficiary of the changes wrought by Gretchen Wilson in 2004, when “Redneck Woman” reintroduced the idea of a female country star in thrall to neither balladry nor traditional feminine dress. (Ignore, for now, that “Idol” ’s own Carrie Underwood became an even bigger star singing exactly those ballads in exactly that dress.) Shepherd, though not so theatrically rural, shares Wilson’s outspoken side. “Takin’ Off This Pain” is the single that introduced Shepherd and her high, hard voice, planted firmly and unlikely to crumple because of some dumb boy. Though Shepherd’s music flirts with the Southern rock that has been part of country for almost twenty years now, there are more fiddles than Les Pauls on “Sounds So Good.” Shepherd’s strength is reanimating eternal honky-tonk tropes: itchy marriages, empty bottles, and sentimentality that hides its light under wordplay. (It is apt that one of Shepherd’s favorite songs is George Jones’s signature tune, “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” a piece of writing as stoic as it is purple.) At twenty-one, Shepherd has an organically feminist take in her songs, although the lyrics could easily be sung either by men or women. As she says in “I Ain’t Dead Yet”—before an unconvincing line about “getting older”—“I’m just like anybody else who needs a break from time to time.” ?
Reviewed by Jane Dark
“I got a cold beer in my right hand, in my left I got a wedding band,” begins the album, sounding like a famous phrase you can’t quite place. Which is the genius of Ashton Shepherd’s debut. Even by the standards of joyously derivative new country, Sounds So Good sounds so familiar that it comes to feel utterly distinctive: No one could sound this much like everybody. A thousand great modern Nashville acts distilled to one river-wide voice, heavy on the whiskey and light on the moralizing, with heartbreak keening on the back road but drowned out by guitars and fiddle and the sound of a cooler slushing on the bed of her truck, Shepherd has realized a kind of dream: the invention of a new cliché, hauntingly familiar.
Download: "Sounds So Good," "Takin' Off This Pain," "Whiskey Won the Battle"
The pride of Leroy, Ala., “Takin Off This Pain” singer Ashton Shepherd just knew that one day it would all come together. Here’s what she told me: “I knew if the right person heard me at the right time, I could fulfill this dream of mine to sing. This is me living my dream. I still write in my journal, and I just re-read a line I wrote a few months back: ‘Take this as it comes.’ You can’t really prepare yourself for all of this, but it’s my dream and I am just following my words!”
With the abundance of so-called country artists today essentially making slick radio pop aimed at the MySpace teen set, how refreshing to hear a new female singer-songwriter with twang, grit and style. Alabama's Ms. Shepherd blasts out of the speakers with "Takin' Off This Pain" and continues her down-home defiance on "I Ain't Dead Yet," "Old Memory" and "Whiskey Won the Battle," the only track she didn't have a hand in writing. But she sure is fixated on drinking songs. Nine of the 11 cuts make some mention of a beer, a bar, a cooler or a drink. Be careful, Ms. Shepherd, or you'll quickly become a country music caricature.
Mario Tarradell
Ashton Shepherd, “Sounds So Good” (MCA): Shepherd is from Coffeyville, Ala., and her voice is pungent, chicken-coop country. “Ah gotta cold bayr in mah raht hy-end,” she drawls in the first line to her single, “Takin’ Off This Pain.” Her music heads for the wide, open spaces the Dixie Chicks used to inhabit and the gravel roads Miranda Lambert has been rip-roaring down for two albums: countrified ballads and rockers with big, sweeping melodies, thick harmonies and lyrics that keep things simple and sometimes a little plain. Shepherd, 21, wrote or co-wrote everything here, and right now she’s my leading candidate for Rookie of the Year in country music.
Twenty-one years old from Alabama, Ashton Shepherd has the voice of a blowsy fortysomething on most of her new-ish album Sounds So Good, and I mean that as a compliment. Singing songs she wrote about ditching a stale marriage (”Takin’ Off This Pain”), shaking off a suffocating domestic existence (”I Ain’t Dead Yet”), and getting drunk to blur the sight of an old love in a bar (”Old Memory”), Shepherd follows the tradition of country women from Wanda Jackson to Tanya Tucker to Dolly Parton in knowing in her bones what the future can hold for women who don’t stand up for themselves.
But far from being a fight-for-your-right-to-party affirmation album, Sounds So Good is a big, juicy commercial album… for the commercial country industry of, oh, about 1983. That is, when fiddles and a banjo and subject matter about working-class life were still viable hit-single material. (Not for nothing does Shepherd name-check 80s casualty-king Keith Whitley on one song here.)
I haven’t heard any country singer since Webb Pierce and George Jones sing as lustily and heartbrokenly about drinking too much , and I haven’t heard any woman as young as this with a voice as deep and knowing as Shepherd’s. (Think Patsy Cline just hitting legal age.) I realize these are extravagant comparisons, and who knows, maybe she’ll never match the force of this major-label debut–it’s happened before. But right now, Shepherd’s got the most consistent, go-for-broke, the-hell-with-you country album out there.
VOTE NOW for Ashton's video "Takin' Off This Pain" in CMT's Pure 12-Pack Countdown. The countdown consists of the hottest videos on CMT Pure Country and is determined by YOU the fans. Log on to cmtpure.com and select your twelve favorite videos from the playlist. Then, watch and see how they rank.
Ashton Shepard cuts apart from the rest. Country was created for catchy hooks and true emotion. Shepard has more than both going for her. She wrote almost every track on the album, mostly before her 21st birthday. Her voice is strong and sincere, making the package certainly wrap up nicely. Her guitar playing is incredibly catchy, and uses the best elements of country and pop, musically similar to early Shania Twain.
Too much of the time alternative country feels contrived and impersonal. Shepard breaks this stereotype in two, making Sound So Good nothing but the beginning of something important!
- JOHN SHELTON IVANY
Go to www.MySpace.com/AshtonShepherd between now and Friday, April 11th and comment on Ashton’s GMA blog saying “I Want Go To GMA’s with Ashton”; 5 lucky fans/bloggers will be given a pair of VIP tickets to see Ashton perform live on Good Morning America in New York City on April 21st.
Be sure to vote for Ashton this week for GAC's Top 20 Country Countdown - voted on only by true country fans like you! CLICK HERE NOW to vote. You may vote once per day. GAC's Top 20 Country Countdown premieres every Friday night at 8PM, E.T.
Ashton Shepherd’s debut album, Sounds So Good, has been in stores for two weeks, but she can’t get over the excitement of it all. Of the 11 songs on the album, Ashton single-handedly wrote seven and co-wrote three. She describes the thrill she feels when looking through the album insert and reading her name in print as the songwriter: “Even now it’s like I find myself pinching myself to look through the insert and see 'written by Ashton Shepherd.' And to look at it, it’s almost like, that is the coolest thing. It’s like, ‘well, I know I wrote the song…’ I wrote it, I sing it, but when I look at it on paper like that, it’s just awesome. It just tickles me to death.” Hear Ashton tell it.
With a robust voice and rich songwriting (she wrote or co-wrote 10 of 11 cuts), this Alabama native makes and impressive country debut. Amon the best: "Takin' Off This Pain," the fiesty first single.
Check out GACtv.com's Fan Focus for Ashton! Fans can order an autographed CD, browse photos, play games and enter to win a signed guitar. Check it out here!
She grabs you right from the start: "I've got a cold beer in my right hand/In my left I've got my wedding band," Ashton Shepherd belts over the hard-edged honky-tonk of the lead-off track and first single from her terrific debut.
"Takin' Off This Pain" sets up an album that presents the big-voiced young Alabama native as a torch-bearer of tradition-minded country (dig that rare reference to Keith Whitley), albeit one wrapped in a very attractive physical and commercial package. Her verve and charisma recall that of a young Terri Clark, and she's already a pretty sharp songwriter - she wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 11 tunes. The sap runs high on "How Big Are Angel Wings," but with the rest she exudes freshness even while covering familiar ground, revealing a fetching blend of feistiness and vulnerability.
- Nick Cristiano
Ashton will be featured in the April 7, 2008 issue of Country Weekly. She saw an advance of the magazine when visitng Blair Garner of After Midnight. Hear Ashton's response to the feature here.
Ashton Shepherd recently visited CMT to tape songs for Unplugged at Studio 330 and sat for an interview. CLICK HERE to read this exclusive interview!
Ashton Shepherd - Sounds So Good (MCA Nashville) - Like her Texas counterpart Miranda Lambert, Alabama native Ashton Shepherd serves up a gritty remedy for the sugary pop-confection emanating most recently from Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. Like Gretchen Wilson (without the goofy Muzik Mafia taint) Shepherd is a hell raising gal that calibrates good loving and a good time. Sure the release has producer Buddy Cannon’s Nashville sheen ladled over it like he does Kenny Chesney’s slop, but Shepherd shines through it with bad-ass glory. “Takin’ Off This Pain” puts all the cards on the table as a testament to women’s love woes. “I Ain’t Dead Yet” is a lovely Texas waltz about yearnings for good times in spite of domestic and maternal obligations. “Old Memory” is a slow burner that dwells on lost love that makes you forget the lady is only 21 years old. This is unabashed country music gold!
Mark your calendars!! ASHTON will perform on GAC’s OPRY LIVE on Saturday, April 26th. Visit GACTV.com for more info and showtimes.
Bottom Line:
If traditional country is your style, then you really must check out Sounds So Good. You'll enjoy it from start to finish. Famous producer Buddy Cannon gave the tracks his golden touch and Ashton did a perfect job laying down the vocals and writing or co-writing all but one song on the album. It really is a fantastic release.
Ashton Shepherd has a fantastic album on her hands with Sounds So Good and that's putting it mildly. Seems like there has been a reemergence of female country singers wanting to go down a traditional path and that's something to get excited about. Another positive is the fact Ashton co-wrote ten of the album's eleven songs. Seven were actually solely penned by the rising star. Talk about impressive! Be on the lookout for more by this artist, because I know I will.
From the first time I heard "Takin' Off This Pain," I knew I would have to listen to Ashton's album because I had a gut feeling it would be traditional sounding. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do when it comes to getting some attention for her man. If she feels she isn't getting what she deserves - there goes the wedding ring. "You sit there and you watch the TV even when I'm lookin' sexy" she sings. That right there could tell you all you need to know.
"Lost In You" is the complete opposite of the first song. This time Ashton sings about how she feels whenever she's with her man. There's something about him that takes her to a different place where there's no fear and she honestly hopes he feels the same way when it comes to her. It's almost magical and dreamy sounding when you listen to the background music.
Settling down is something the woman promises to do in "Not Right Now," but only in the future. It would be more trouble than it's worth if she tried being a young lady at this point in her life. Give her a dirt road, river banks, and something cold to drink and she'll stay up all night having a good time. Her focus is living her life and having as much fun as possible.
You can sit back and imagine the great music being created at "The Pickin' Shed." Just grab your guitar and come on over for some friendship, fun, and good music. You'll become just as hooked as the others did. "You can shoot pool or you can throw darts any day. It's like our own rowdy bar that's open every night. There ain't no closing time and no rules to go by" at this backyard gathering place.
My second favorite song (right after "Takin' Off This Pain") from the album is "The Bigger The Heart." It's so downright country I can't get enough of it. The fiddle and the steel guitar drag you in right along with Ashton's traditional voice and you can't help but enjoy everything about the tune. A rough and rowdy man said he'd never fall in love, but when a five foot three sweetheart came along, he couldn't help himself. Only problem is, she's not too interested in staying around.
Can't have a traditional country album without a drinking song, so "Whiskey Won The Battle" fills the gap as just that in addition to being the last song. Ashton really bats this song out of the park and ends things with an exclamation mark instead of only a period. There's a slightly dark and mood undertone that perfectly fits the lyrics. There have been some female country singers releasing traditional sounding albums the past few months, but in my book Ashton is clearly the winner. I'm amazed at how great this album is and I can't wait to see her career become more successful as the weeks go by.
Some music you should check out
Ashton Shepherd, Sounds So Good: Shepherd is from Coffeyville, Ala., and she sounds chicken-coop country. The first line of her first song (and single), "Takin' Off This Pain": "Ah gotta cold beer in mah raaht hayend ..." Her music heads for the wide, open spaces the Dixie Chicks used to inhabit and the roads Miranda Lambert has been ripping down for two albums: countrified ballads and rockers with big, sweeping melodies, thick harmonies and lyrics that keep things simple and sometimes a little plain. Shepherd, 21, wrote or co-wrote everything here, and right now she's my Rookie of the Year.
http://backtorockville.typepad.com/back_to_rockville/
Want to know about Ashton's influences, songwriting and her road to Nashville? Watch the exclusive interview at AT&TBlueRoom.com.
Ashton Shepherd’s debut album, Sounds So Good, is in stores now and her single “Takin’ Off This Pain” is top 25 on both charts. With both of these successes, Ashton is optimistic about what will happen in the future. However, where many believe a record deal will bring wealth and extravagance, Ashton is looking forward to more simple luxuries: “I would like to buy 30 packs of socks and throw them away when I wear them the first time because a brand new sock feels so good on your foot. When you put them on it’s just like, ‘Oh, it’s just so great.’ And then you have to start washing and wearing them, and they get thin and crappy within two times, the elastic starts wearing out. That was going to be my binge. I’m just going to have a closet of packs of socks and just wear new socks every day and when I get done with them, no dirty clothes for the socks. Plus, I hate doing sock laundry, so that would do away with two things. I’d just throw them in the trash.” Hear Ashton tell it!
HOT DISH: Alan Jackson and Ashton Shepherd Excel With Their New Albums: Musings on Political Downfall -- and Some Great Country Music
By: Hazel Smith
When my body gets worn down to a frazzle with the music business and the madness, there's always something that springs up to make a believer -- and I'm talking about a big-time believer -- out of me. First, a three-day old-time revival at church kept me from going totally wacky. Then a major news story and some great country music grabbed my attention like a vise, giving me reason to laugh out loud!
First off, I'm not wishing bad things on anybody when they're down and out, but when you've got a man -- the governor of the great state of New York -- whose sneer and arrogance and finger pointing at others is struck down by the admittance of involvement in a prostitution ring while his wife stands by his side ... well, what do you do? You look back over the past few years of his self-inflicted sainthood and you have to say what all us Southern folks say: "Bless his heart." Eliot Spitzer's got himself into a mess bigger than all of radio, record labels and music biz executives he targeted during his investigation of record promotion practices. Some of those practices weren't right, but look who's wrong now.
Hollywood, go ahead. Make your Spitzer movie. You'll never be able to put on the screen the events that led up to what happened last week. You cannot make a seemingly perfect man so imperfectly guilty and make it believable. Usually, country songwriters can cut to the chase with such subjects as dying, cheating and drinking. But with Spitzer's turnaround and resignation, plenty of exclamation points will need to be used.
Alan Jackson's Good Time Is a Great Time
Alan Jackson absolutely outdid himself with the 71 minutes of music he's given us on Good Time, his brand new, perfecto album. Listen fans, Alan's got 17 songs on his 17th CD, and there ain't a cur in the bunch. I listened and laughed aloud and, yes, I shed a tear or two. Alan always does that to me, but Good Time is so good, I have to say he may be the finest singer-songwriter in music today.
Notice I did not say "country music." I said "music" -- and that's what I meant. If you can tell me one artist in any music genre that can write 'em all, sing 'em and have every song be a killer, then I'll change my tune. Good Time debuted at No. 1 on the pop and country charts, marking his fourth album to hit both top spots simultaneously during its first week of release. That's what I call entertainment.
Ain't nothing on radio better than A.J.'s current hit, "Small Town Southern Man," and you can quote me on that.
Ashton Shepherd Reminds Me of Hank
Have you ever heard of Coffeeville, Ala.? Me neither. What about Leroy, Ala.? Me neither, but we will. Newcomer Ashton Shepherd was born in Coffeeville, population 360 and lives in Leroy -- which doesn't even list a population.
Good Lord, when I first heard Ashton sing, I about died. Listen close to the way she wraps herself around the lyrics of her first single, "Takin' Off This Pain," as she sings, "I've got a cold beer in my right hand/In my left I've got my wedding band." And she adds, "You don't ever even talk to me/I just get to do your laundry." She wants this man to miss her when she gets gone, and she knows full-well he will.
How did this 21-year-old mom learn to write and sing with such depth? Well, she's been compared to Loretta Lynn by critics. At 8 years old, she was singing Patsy Cline hits. As great as Loretta wrote songs and sang, and as great as Patsy Cline could sing, that is not what I hear in Ashton Shepherd's music. I hear Alabama lyrics from an Alabama singer-songwriter who did as much as any country singer to put country music and Nashville on the world map. I hear Hank! It's the sound from being raised way out in the country in south Alabama -- picking peanuts and peas and music, raising what they eat and eating what they raise. I'm laughing aloud with joy.
The current hot-button debate among many country music writers—particularly among those put-off by the way that the mainstream critical establishment quite sensibly embraced Miranda Lambert last year—concerns the importance of "authenticity" and whether or not a singer-songwriter needs to have lived with a certain set of experiences in order to bring something of value to their work. It's a silly, dead-end debate that attempts to claim that it's about preserving the legacies of genre legends like Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard, who wrote songs that drew heavily from their compelling life experiences, when in reality it's about trying to develop some weird "us vs. them" inner sanctum among a handful of writers who assume that they're the only ones with the authority to declare what's important and