Ashton Shepherd's 2011 CD, Where Country Grows. Photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

Ashton Shepherd knows "Where Country Grows."

Her distinctive sound comes from her family farm in the tiny hamlet of Leroy, Alabama. More specifically, it comes from a backyard cabin called The Pickin’ Shed. That’s where this young wife and mother crafts her extraordinarily insightful country songs.

Unlike many country singers, who leave their small towns to create a new life under Nashville’s bright lights, Ashton has chosen to remain in her home state among the people whom she has always known, continuing to write songs about everyday experiences in a simple yet powerful way. She’s a Southern charmer with common sense and a quick wit who is comfortable with who she is and how she lives her life.

Critics and fans alike have been drawn to the authenticity of this small-town sage whose traditional country music strikes a chord with Americans everywhere. She captures the life of those who live very differently than the ones depicted on reality shows and in magazines. She has emerged as a feminine voice of the working class and a role model for women whose lives are defined more by their aching feet and shoulders than the color of their collars, for the women who toil all day at offices and factories, only to face more work at home to take care of their families.

Indeed, Ashton herself is a working mother – she has a son, James, who is five, and another one the way – who works on her farm when she’s not touring and sells the results of her labor from a makeshift vegetable stand out of the back of a truck. She’s also become a business woman who has learned to make the best decisions for her career and life.

Song by song, she has used these common threads to sew a musical patchwork quilt of a woman’s soul. With a blend of conviction, humor and sass, Ashton presents the image of a woman who maintains a deep loyalty to her family, but also has the strength necessary to stand up for herself and what she believes in.