Ashley Monroe

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Ashley Monroe (born September 10, 1986 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American country music singer-songwriter. She has released two solo singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The singles "Satisfied" and "I Don't Want To" (which featured Brooks & Dunn singer Ronnie Dunn) reached #43 and #37, respectively. Both singles were intended to be released on Monroe's debut album, Satisfied, in 2007, but the album went unreleased. Soon after, Monroe left Columbia Records' roster in late 2007. Satisfied was finally released on May 19, 2009.

Biography

Monroe was born on September 10, 1986 in Knoxville, Tennessee. At age 11, she won a talent contest singing "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and found steady work at a theater there. While growing up, her parents played songs by the Eagles and Lynryd Skynyrd, so her country rock roots started early on. At age 13, however, her father died from cancer in 2000. While still grieving over their loss, Monroe and her mother continued on with their lives and moved to Nashville so she could pursue her career in music.

Satisfied

After a year in Nashville, she gained a publishing deal as a songwriter, which then led to her signing to a record contract with Columbia Records Nashville division, where she began to record her debut album, Satisfied. In 2006, the title track to the album was released as the first single to country radio. It failed to make the top 40 on the Hot Country Songs chart, however, a second single was released shortly after. "I Don't Want To" was released as the second single, which featured Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn. It initially did well on the charts, charting to #37.

Still after two singles, the album still hadn't been released. The label then decided not to release the album until Monroe charted a top 20 single. But, no follow-up singles were ever released. iTunes briefly had the album available in July of 2006 but it was removed from the online store by mid-August.

In late-2007, Monroe and Columbia Records parted ways, and Satisfied went without being released. In addition to her own material, she co-wrote Katrina Elam's 2007 single "Flat on the Floor" (which was also recorded by Carrie Underwood on her 2007 album Carnival Ride), as well as Jason Aldean's 2009 single "The Truth."

In April 2009, it was announced on Monroe's MySpace page that Satisfied would be released to digital retails (iTunes, Rhapsody, etc) on May 19, 2009.

Collaborations

Trent Dabbs

In early 2008 Ashley Monroe began collaborating with singer-songwriter Trent Dabbs and creating several demo tracks that appeared on their individual MySpace pages over the course of several months before the www.myspace.com/ashleymonroetrentdabbs page was created. The end result is an EP that has been digitally released on both iTunes and Amazon.

The demo tracks that were available to streams for the Monroe/Dabbs collaboration sessions have been two versions of "Shine" one with Ashley on lead vocals and one with Trent that was then placed on his most recent release.

Other tracks have included "I'm Coming Over", "Laying Low[or I'm Staying Low]", "Now That I Know", "When The Days Is Done", "Everything I Wanted" and "Gone".

The official EP track listing however contains only five of these songs; "I'm Coming Over", "Laying Low", "See Right Through" (the only track that never appeared on MySpace), "Now That I Know" and "Gone"

Brendan Benson

In late-2008, Monroe collaborated with The Raconteurs (of which Brendan Benson is a member) and Ricky Skaggs on The Raconteurs single, "Old Enough", which was released in bluegrass form, and as a music video which is currently in rotation on CMT.

In early February 2009 two songs entitled "The Things I Do", "Grey" and an extended version of "Old Enough" appeared on Ashley's myspace along with this message:

"Hey everyone! I just wanted to write ya a quick note to tell you I have put up some new songs you guys haven't heard. I have been working with Brendan Benson ... who I met on the set on The Raconteurs video shoot... and I am SOOO EXCITED about the music we have been making. I can't wait to share more! The two songs I posted of ours are "The things I do" and "Grey"... hope you love them as much as I do!"

Then in early March 2009 Brendan and Ashley put up more collaborations on their official MySpace and ReverbNation pages entitled "Ballad of Pretty Baby", "On The Fence", "I Don't Want To See You Anymore" and "Consider Me".

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

Music videos

External links

• Official Website.

References