Ashely Monroe

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Ashley Monroe's career has been on hold for a long time.

The former Knoxvillian recorded her first album at the age of 19, but it sat in the vaults at Sony for four years without being released. Musical peers and the lucky outsiders who heard her, championed her music, but it was mostly unheard.

Yet now, Monroe seems to be at the beginning of a roll. She's just finished a tour with Jewel. The video of Monroe singing "Old Enough" with the Raconteurs, is catching on online. She's been recording with Brendon Benson (also a Raconteurs member) and writing songs with Michelle Branch. Jason Aldean's next single will be one of Monroe's songs and Norah Jones and Kellie Pickler have recorded songs by Monroe. Currently, she's one of 10 Nashville-based performers in the "Ten Out of Tenn" tour. And, although she left Sony Records two years ago, her album, "Satisfied," has, been released for digital download.

"I left on good terms and they were very nice to let me go, because I was in debt to them quite a bit," says Monroe. "But I've had a peaceful feeling ever since I left. It feels like everything is going to be OK."

Monroe began singing in church at the age of 10.

"I sang 'Amazing Grace' and I forgot the words," says Monroe. "I ran off the stage and said I'd never sing again!"

Not long after, though, Monroe was performing at the Smoky Mountain Barn theater in Pigeon Forge.

"I clogged and I yodeled and sang," she says. "I did that four or five nights a week when I was 10 and 11."

She won the respect of performers generations older and looked to be on track to a good career.

Her father Larry, quoted in a News Sentinel story on Ashley, said he was going to quit his job to drive his daughter's tour bus. However, Larry died of cancer a year later, when Ashley was 13.

"That just turned my world upside down," she says. "And that's when I started writing. My heart was broken and I just had to get it out of my system."

Two years later, Monroe's mother, Kellye Monroe, decided the family needed a fresh start and the two moved to Nashville. Ashley was 17 when she landed a songwriting contract and 19 when she signed to Sony.

She recalls touring radio stations with a record company executive to try and get programmers to add her music to radio playlists.

"Some of these program directors would start crying when I sang a song and were moved by the song or the lyric or something," says Monroe. "And the guy from the label who was out with me would say, 'It just doesn't fit the format' as they're drying their eyes."

While it was frustrating, Monroe is pragmatic.

"Everything needed to happen the way it did because it helped me to grow," she says.

"I've always said I wanted to just sing and let people hear my music - as opposed to selling out or doing something just being famous," says Monroe. "I think I have a gift that I'd like to share with people, but I have to be true to myself. If I can't do that, I'd rather work at Walgreens. I can't expect people to like it if I don't."

Monroe is in talks with a non-country record label and she said things are looking good for her future. The money she'll make from songwriting royalties are slow in coming, but the money will start finding its way to her mailbox eventually.

"The money will come later - I'll pay my cable bill next year," says Monroe with a laugh. "It's probably getting turned off right now!"

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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