Ashton Shepherd - “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.
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9 Comments
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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.
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…..
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.
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.
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.
May 12, 2008 at 5:54 pm Permalink
This is one of my favorite songs in a long time. LOVE IT!!
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…..
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.
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!)
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