Fists pumping high in the air, ball caps waving wildly, boots stomping, loud guitars, and everyone singing, dancing and having a down home good time....must be Ash Bowers on stage! That is what you can expect at an Ash Bowers show. Count on it. Because if he wasn't on the stage, he'd be in the audience, fist pumping, ball cap waving and boots stomping with them. He is them. From his own rural, country music fed upbringing, he's as authentically country, as red, white and blue-collar as the crowds that come to his shows. Blue collar, indeed. His beginnings were humble and his work ethic strong. As a mechanic at a John Deere dealership in his hometown, when the opportunity arose to travel overseas for a 42-day tour with Armed Forces Entertainment, Ash actually hesitated to go, but the pull of a dream of making music was stronger. In three weeks, he and his band hit the road to Guam, Japan, Korea and the Marshall Islands. That was enough of a spark to get Ash to Nashville to pursue music as a living. He hit Nashville running, daily making the 250-mile roundtrip journey to Nashville from Jackson, Tennessee to write songs, network with industry professionals and pick up a guitar every chance he got. Besides playing bars and honky-tonks all over the U.S., he scored opening slots on two of the biggest new tours in country music: Jason Aldean's Wide Open Tour and Eric Church's Young and Wilder Tour. His songwriting also captured the attention of Wide Open Music Group president, Steve Williams, who approached him to record an album for the newly formed Wide Open Records. "Of course I was up for it," Ash beams. He hit the studio with a vision and the same blue-collar work ethic he had at Tennessee Tractor. In order to maintain his musical integrity, he co-produced the project with Noel Golden and Billy Decker. He also kept writing songs and what he didn't keep for his own project, was quickly snatched up by artists like Randy Houser, Bucky Covington and score of independent artists who see in Ash what they want for themselves—warm, energetic, catchy tunes that emanate from a hard-working, heartland mindset that reminds you how real life makes real good music. But now it's his turn to shine. "A good friend once told me, 'Ash, I've been in this town for a long time, but ain't nobody in the world better at being you than you. So, that's what you need to do.' And he's exactly right." "I just want to write good songs and play good music and feed my family. It would be great to look back in 20 years and say I had a career with 60 #1s like George Strait and go out here and make extremely great money playing music, but at the end of the day all I'm asking for is, I just want to play music and feel like I'm writing great music and make a living doing it. That's it." Official: http://www.ashbowers.com Label: Wide Open Music Group (No Copyright infringement intended to any content)

• published: 06 Aug 2013
• views: 25