Naomi Ashley

Bio:

The buzz: This young, smart and powerful artist offer(s) the clarity of a young K.D. Lang or Lucinda Williams ... Breathtaking. South Bend Tribune..

Where she grew up: On her parents farm outside Moville, Iowa (pop. 1653), 20 miles east of Sioux City.

Where she lives now: Chicago's northside.

The music she makes: Intimate, plainspoken, gorgeously sung songs drawing on American folk, blues and country traditions which surge with all the contradictory impulses of real, imperfect life. Her songs address the lengths we'll go when we can go no futher. The things we'll give up when we have no more to give. The lies we'll tell.

On stage, she's: Free-spirited, forthright and very funny. A born-storyteller who effortlessly connects with her audience.

Current album: her third: the haunting, critically acclaimed masterpiece Another Year Or So

Other recordings: Love and Other Crap (2001) and Small Town Thing (2002).

Performs as: The Naomi Ashley Band, a tight three-piece featuring Chicago fiddle-virtuoso Cathie Van Wert. And also as a solo artist, backing herself with guitar.

Where she plays: major Chicago-area live-music clubs and performing spaces, as well as regional theaters and festivals.

Favorite Chicago venues: Fitzgerald's (Berwyn), SPACE (Evanston), Schubas, Uncommon Ground, Green Mill Tavern

Favorite venue outside Chicago: Acorn Theater (Three Oaks, Michigan)

Opens for: National touring acts, including: Carrie Rodriguez, Fred Eaglesmith, Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles, Cheryl Wheeler and Antje Duvokot.

Also collaborating with: renowned spoken-word artists Marc Smith (father of the 'Poetry Slam') and with poet and performer David Kodeski to create works weaving together spoken-word and music.

Member Since:

October 01, 2007

Members:

Naomi Ashley - Guitar & Vocals
Cathie Van Wert - Fiddle
Whoever Smith - Upright Bass

Influences:

John Prine, Fred Eaglesmith, Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, Steve Goodman, Johnny Cash and the songs and poems of Shel Silverstein

Sounds Like:

Cream & kahlua voice with melodies seductively unadorned and purposeful as a Shaker chair.

Record Label:

Unsigned