{"product_id":"sounds-so-good","title":"Sounds So Good","description":"Amazon.com\n\nAshton Shepherd arrives at Sounds So Good, her memorable 2008 debut, with a long line of remarkable women to thank, starting with the feisty Loretta Lynn and leading all the way up to country’s current wild child, Miranda Lambert. A deep-dish Alabaman (she says “pitcher” for “picture”) Shepherd is a good ol’ gal who knows what she likes (in this case, a pint of Crown and hard country music), and more importantly what she won’t stand for. If Lynn always stopped short of leaving her philandering husband, Shepherd, Loretta’s spiritual granddaughter and already “old” at 21, packs her bags, “Takin’ Off This Pain” with her wedding ring. In essence, as producer Buddy Cannon (Kenny Chesney) helps frame her, Shepherd is every pent-up housewife and mother with a 100-proof wild streak, minus Lambert’s wounded danger. But as the writer or co-writer of nearly every song, she also knows her way around a big romantic ballad (“Lost in You”), and a Dolly-esque dying child weeper (“How Big Are Angel Wings”). Vocally, Shepherd recalls Sara Evans’ nasality in the mid-tempo title track, and the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines in too many places to count, even as her hard-bitten accent and pedal steel filigree keep her from blurring those artists’ stylistic lines. Bottom line: Watch for Shepherd to follow Gretchen Wilson in restoring the chick to redneck pride. -– Alanna Nash\n\nFrom the Artist\n\n\"A pinch before I turned 15, I started playing. When I picked up the guitar, the songs just started pouring out, just one after the other.\" \"This is what I was born to do,\" says Ashton in her honey-smooth, deep-Alabama accent. \"I've always been singing, but it didn't come from me. I didn't just teach myself to sing. I've always sung. The songwriting is the same. As soon as I was big enough to write on paper, I was coming up with stuff. I've got notebooks where I was writing down songs when I couldn't even spell correctly, from the time I was five, six, seven years old.\"\n\"I can't wait to meet people and for people to meet me. I hope everybody connects with my music as well as Nashville has. I think they will. I think people will feel the realness in my songs. I've always dreamed of this ride I'm about to take. I feel as blessed as I've ever felt in my life.\"\n\nAbout the Artist\n\nBlink and you might miss tiny Leroy, Alabama, but if your ears are open, you just might hear it.\nThe pure, clear, country voice of Ashton Shepherd lilts through the evening air in Leroy from a place called The Pickin' Shed. It's a cabin behind her house situated on seven acres of cropland. After the day's chores are over, she and her husband and her brother-in-law break out their guitars and fill the Shed with songs.\nAnd what songs they are. Ashton Shepherd writes in a style that is as refreshing and direct as her personality. You won't hear many \"kiss-off\" songs with more sass and attitude than \"Takin' Off This Pain.\" Her bell-like voice chimes with innocence on the charming rural celebration \"Sounds So Good.\" She's a feisty, fun country gal on \"Not Right Now.\" \"Old Memory\" and \"Whiskey Won The Battle\" are classic-sounding \"weeper\" ballads that could have been written a generation ago.\nHer moods range from a touching story song like \"How Big Are Angel Wings\" to a fiery hillbilly rocker like \"The Bigger The Heart.\" The drenched-in-steel love ballad \"Lost In You\" contrasts beautifully with her striking, woman-to-woman saga \"Regular Joe.\" Her beloved \"The Pickin' Shed\" is the subject of one particularly friendly ditty, and her powerful housewife lyric \"I Ain't Dead Yet\" is another page from her autobiography.\nAll of these potent tunes are on Sounds So Good, the debut Ashton Shepherd album from MCA Nashville. All of them were written before she turned 21.\nIf you look at a map of her home state, you'll see that there is a vast area southwest of Birmingham where there are no interstate highways and communities so small that Demopolis, population 7,500, is a metropolis by comparison. Here, the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers meander slowly southward toward Mobile through acre after acre of forests and farm fields. Coffeeville, where Ashton was raised, is a tiny town of 360. Leroy doesn't even list a population.\nShe was born Ashton Delilah Shepherd on August 16, 1986. Her dad, Donnie, worked in a paper mill along the Alabama River. Mom Denise was a housewife and mother to Ashton, her two older brothers and younger sister. Both parents sang, and Denise's attempts at guitar playing were emulated by both of her sons. But Ashton was even more precocious. As a child, she sang classic country tunes at local fairs, benefit shows and community events. When she was 14, her older brothers urged her to take up the guitar. When she was 15, her parents funded an album recorded at Alabama group member Jeff Cook's studio in Ft. Payne, Alabama. Her mother took the cover photo. Less than a year from the date she arrived in Music City, Sounds So Good was completed with producer Buddy Ca\u003cbr\u003eASIN: B000ZJX9AE\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: 56JPTK000YN5_ns\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Ashton Shepherd\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Audio CD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: The jewel case is broken or has cracks in it. The CD shows very minor wear if any at all. All item shipped Monday - Friday, fast shipping!  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Reliant Bookstore","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43344609509553,"sku":"56JPTK000YN5_ns","price":6.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0544\/8872\/7729\/files\/skuimage_b72515d0-502e-4eb0-8925-1f596f949d5b.jpg?v=1707287895","url":"https:\/\/www.reliantbookstore.com\/products\/sounds-so-good","provider":"Reliant Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}