Ashton Shepherd – “Sounds So Good”

Matt C | May 11th, 2008 Email Share

Darius Rucker 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.

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Listen: Ashton Shepherd – “Sounds So Good”

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  1. [...] this month noting that her family and little boy were a part of the video, and in his review, Matt drew parallels between “Sounds So Good” and Randy Travis’ “Deeper Than the [...]

  1. corey
    May 11, 2008 at 9:41 pm Permalink

    As someone who predominately listens to country radio (no hatred aimed at me for this please), it took me awhile to get used to her voice, only because it is so contrary to what is playing at country stations. Nonetheless, her cd is magnificent and her voice should be one that we hear for a long, long time.

  2. Kelly
    May 12, 2008 at 8:31 am Permalink

    I have said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love a woman that sings as much about a full cooler as she does love…..

  3. Jordan Stacey
    May 12, 2008 at 9:51 am Permalink

    Like I’ve said over at countryuniverse this isn’t the best song on her album, but it’ll make for a great radio single. Also it’s probably one of the better singles currently climbing the charts.

  4. Matt B.
    May 12, 2008 at 10:20 am Permalink

    I saw Ashton sing this song live and she explained it as a fun type of song. It’s also a great summer song.

  5. Dan
    May 12, 2008 at 1:23 pm Permalink

    God, I hope this becomes a hit. She deserves to be a star and this single is perfect for summer.

  6. Jaime
    May 12, 2008 at 5:54 pm Permalink

    This is one of my favorite songs in a long time. LOVE IT!!

  7. Rick
    May 12, 2008 at 6:15 pm Permalink

    I just love women who still sing traditional country style music well and are proud of it, like Ashton. Here she is only 21 and already married with a child and is looking forward to getting home to plant organic vegetables and to buy a cow when she gets some free time! Now if that ain’t country then David Allan Coe is likely to go around kissin’ something. That type of background used to give country artists credibility back when being a hillbilly was cool. Now the pop-rock loving Top 40 country radio audience would rather hear teeny bopper love songs from the daughter of a well heeled stockbroker, or slick pop diva country from an Oklahoma sorority girl…….

    I think Ashton is the best thing to happen to real country music in a long while and especially on the female artist front. I want to see Top 40 country radio get out of her way and let her music earn the kind of success she deserves. Well, I can dream, can’t I…..

  8. shiloh
    May 13, 2008 at 10:18 am Permalink

    This is one of my favorites on Ashton’s CD. I can totally relate to every word of this song. Her voice is amazing and very real. You can’t help but get drawn in after the first line of the song. I am surley hoping this goes really far on the charts because it definitely deserves to. This is a great summer song also.

  9. Abby
    May 13, 2008 at 2:37 pm Permalink

    This track is my favorite on the whole album. It’s the quintessential country song of this era — it’s anthemic without trying to be. I am really hoping that Ashton catches on and eventually blows up into a country superstar. She has the potential. She’s got a perfect “just plucked from the holler” back-story. She is naturally an excellent singer and songwriter. I’m just a little concerned for her because it seems like country audiences are unreceptive to unique and genuinely talented artists (hello, Julie Roberts). So I’m gonna keep my fingers crossed for Ashton (and I might actually pay for her album, too!)

  10. Colt
    May 21, 2008 at 10:48 pm Permalink

    I actually heard this one on FM radio. I about drove off the road. First time I’d heard something good in awhile. They followed it up with Billy Gilman, though.

  11. Tiffany.M
    May 27, 2008 at 12:48 pm Permalink

    I love ashton she is so natural and pure. my mom works with someone who is friends with her cousin(and her. one of the best things about her is shes not a fake and doesnt rely on technology to make her sound good like taylor swift

  12. Shelia
    May 31, 2008 at 8:25 pm Permalink

    You tell ‘em, RICK. :)

  13. Todd
    June 11, 2008 at 9:00 pm Permalink

    This is by far my favorite single released by anyone this year, it’s so nice to turn on the radio and still hear real country music once in a while.I will say I was a little dissapointed when I heard this song on the CD the first time because I had heard her perform this song accoustically on radio interviews and was really hoping for that type of wonderful sound on the album cut,but even cut like this it’s a great song.

  14. Courtney Elise
    June 12, 2008 at 10:25 am Permalink

    It’s a good song, i like it. Her voice seems almost fake though. It’s southern (and i like that) but when she talks it’s not that southern. Jenifer Nettle’s voice is as southern when she talks as when she sings. I just think some of Ashton’s “accent” is put on.

  15. northtexas
    June 12, 2008 at 1:53 pm Permalink

    “slick pop diva country from an Oklahoma sorority girl…….”

    You’re so right Rick! Carrie is such a horrible roll model for young girls everywhere! Just to think that she had the audacity to go back and get her college degree from Oklahoma’s Northeastern State University after winning AI and embarking on a successful career.

  16. Funk
    June 12, 2008 at 2:10 pm Permalink

    Rick, what do you know about Oklahoma sororities? Anybody with some education isn’t country?

    Do you know how you came to be a bigot or did it sneak up on you?

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