Ashley Monroe

Country singer/songwriter Ashley Monroe's career got off to a slow start, but it eventually picked up steam, especially after she found her way into a sort of supergroup situation. Monroe was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. She started singing while she was still a child, and moved to Nashville while she was still in her teens. She was just 19 when she got a record deal with Sony. But her debut album, Satisfied, ran aground early on. Two singles were released in advance of the 2006 LP and achieved only minor success; the album appeared briefly in digital music services before being pulled, and wasn't officially released until three years later. Monroe kept plugging away, making music independently, and singing with the likes of The Raconteurs, Cory Morrow, and Will Hoge. But her fortunes turned around when she became a charter member of all-female outlaw country trio Pistol Annies along with Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley. Their 2011 debut album, Hell on Heels, hit No. 1 on the country charts, and the title track became a Platinum single. They also sang on one of the biggest country songs of 2013, Blake Shelton's "Boys 'Round Here." Monroe got a new solo deal, with Warner Bros Nashville, and released the No. 10 country album Like a Rose in 2013. Two years later, her follow-up album, The Blade, went all the way to No. 2 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album. In 2015, Monroe was nominated for another Grammy, this time for her duet with Blake Shelton on his single "Lonely Tonight." In 2018, Warner released Monroe's album Sparrow.