Exactly 10 years ago, in July of 2013, Mercury Records released a single, the cover of which featured the sketch of a longhaired, bearded guitar player. It held the title 'What Are You Listening To?' and turned out ot be a soulful mid-tempo ballad pondering a lost love, carried by a powerful-rough, yet surprisingly sensitive voice. The upper left corner of the cover held the name of the widely unknown artist in bold red letters, who had written the song together with Lee Thomas Miller: Chris Stapleton.
As was customary, the artist would travel radio stations around the country during the weeks leading up to the release of the song in order to personally introduce himself and the song to radio. During one of those stops, Philadelphia radio station 92.5XTU decided to tape the acoustic performance and upload it onto the internet. 10 years later, this performance has garnered over 54 mio. views on YouTube and hence become some sort of historic music document.
But the world wasn't ready for Chris Stapleton, yet. For the single flopped and only reached Number 46 on the Radio (Billboard Country Airplay) Chart. It took another 2 years until virtually everyone was talking about Chris Stapleton, following his duet with Justin Timberlake at the CMA Awards 2015 on the song 'Tennessee Whiskey' from his debut-album "Traveller". And as they say, the rest is history!
Although 'What Are You Listening To?' did not become a hit in 2013, it still changed somebody else's life. Because when young college student Kassi Ashton came across the song by accident, she was so impressed by it's style that she decided to arrange her own musical style after it. Soul and Country: just what Chris Stapleton and his magnificient voice do stand for.
29-year old Kassi Ashton originates from California. However not from the state, but a small village of some 4,000 souls by the same name and from the state of Missouri. Even though she describes herself as a love child in a 2019 interview with people.com, her parents never got married. That way she commuted between 2 different homes, soaking in all opposites. And adding her early excitement for music and singing in public.
"I remember Amy Winehouse and Adele came on the scene, and that was the whole mood, and I just fell hard for it — again, moody, big voices. I like, s—, that’s got meat in it: actual, real, bottom-ended sound", she describes the influences she heard at her mother's house. "Mom only listened to only power females, but it was genre-less in a way. It was Loretta and Reba — but at the same time, Stevie Nicks and Aretha. These women who just completely owned their landscape and what they do."
Having to go through bullying in school and a thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2014, gave her a brave new look at life: "I can’t live in fear that something like that is going to happen because it just will. I’ve got a cool scar, and maybe I can help somebody who has it and is not dealing with it well."I was born in the wrong place in the wrong time, but sometimes the wrong way makes you the right kind, she sings on her first song released at the start of 2018. It is a song which she had written together with Luke Laird and Shane McAnally about her origin in 'California, Missouri' and which became the catalyst for MCA Nashville/Interscope Records offering her a recording contract the year before.
"The music is fresh, unique, and rich in lyrical landscape far beyond her years", Universal Music Group CEO Mike Dungan was singing her praises. Consequently 'California, Missouri' should be the first single from an upcoming debut album. When Keith Urban searched her out for his song 'Drop Top' on his album "Graffiti U" (2018) and Maren Morris took her on her GIRL: The World Tour, breakthrough success seemed inevitable.
But the rather cold and sober production of 'California, Missouri' along with singing parts that came across bland and destitute, the resulting piece of music placed too far off the country genre. Little wonder, the song did not make it onto any radio playlists. Did the artist really make the right decision for the right genre?
On her homepage Kassi Ashton describes her music as "a little bit of rock, a hell of a lot of soul, and a throwback R&B groove!" Something of everything, but not much of country. Surprisingly she still has the back of her label MCA Nashville. Despite of still not having released a debut album, but rather 9 singles which sound like her artistic quest for a true vision without any country compromises.
The first compromise she finally made at least lyrically, turned up last year on her song 'Dates In Pickup Trucks'. It subsequently put her on radio playlists for the first time and gave her a first Radio (Billboard Country Airplay)
Chart entry at number 57. Stylistically however it still is a song dominated by hip hop beats, but the streaming numbers on Spotify jumped the 9 mio. mark for the first time in her career.
In February of 2023 her current single got released. And for the first time she seems to do a lot of things right. Written together with Todd Clark and Travis
Wood 'Drive You Out Of My Mind' surprises with a catchy melody right out of the gate, never falling back on hip hop. The production does not sound mechanical but fresh and infectious. And that makes it even more difficult to to avoid it's earworm character.
Lyrically it is less spectacular with it's pun about trying to forget someone by physically driving away. Put commercially the track is catchier than anything Kassi Ashton has done so far, which puts her at Number 45 and close to her first Top-40 hit on the Radio (Billboard Country Airplay) Chart. And chances are good, that we will not be able to drive the melody out of our minds, before that happens.
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