With a voice like that, Ashley Monroe could have all the confidence in the world. But last week, performing a set at Brooklyn’s Rough Trade on April 24th, there was trepidation in the way she held herself. It sure didn’t affect her singing, and it faded after a few songs, but it was clear she needed to trust that the audience would be there to catch her if she jumped. And we were. We listened closely and quietly as she warmed to us, and though you could see it in her face that she wasn’t sure if she deserved our applause, she did. Her voice sounded gorgeous, her songs full of heart and her smile so genuine. Performing nearly her entire new record, the stunning Sparrow, all the way through, Monroe gave it her all.
Working with renowned producer Dave Cobb, Monroe crafted Sparrow from a deep well that had been bubbling up inside her. Confronting a vast range of emotions that span from experiences like loss, the birth of new life, primal intimacy and dark solitude, she wrote songs that ultimately feel like a departure from 2015’s more sparkly release The Blade. That powerhouse voice of hers has found its way back to a simpler, more stripped-down sound on Sparrow. Still playing across genres, Monroe has a strong grasp on her country-roots-pop hybrid, and it comes through on each of Sparrow’s songs.
Opening her set with “Hands On You”, Monroe and her band (which she’d only just begun playing with the day before) dove right into her new songs. The steamy tension builder is oozing with longing and sexual desire, and the way Monroe finds each and every groove in her vocals only adds to the song’s drama. She told us right up front she planned to play the new album, and she left nothing out, from the cozy, rootsy “Daddy I Told You” to the devastatingly raw and bare “Orphan”.
Nearly every song was accompanied by a sweet, personal story that had us feeling like Monroe’s close friends. “She Wakes Me Up (Rescue Me)” was written for her unborn child, who she thought would be a girl. When she had a boy, the song became an ode to her beloved dog. And just before the shimmering pop tune “Wild Love”, she told us of the melody that started in her head and haunted her while in London with Miranda Lambert, and that morphed into this song. She made us laugh and fall in love with her. By the time she closed with an encore of old favorite “Weed Instead Of Roses”, we missed her already.
