Some years ago, Steve Earle — a man who knows goods songs — said that the best writers and artists in Nashville today are all women. One of the people he had in mind may very well have been Ashley Monroe. She’s an ace songwriter whose found her greatest success in writing for other artists, but she’s also made a series of terrific albums. The quality of her writing and singing was on full display when she recently appeared at The Atlantis in a stripped-down set.
I appreciated the sparseness of the set, which had Ashley playing solo on piano and acoustic guitar and with accompaniment from duo Striking Matches, who opened the show on April 10. I was delighted, and maybe a little surprised at this format, as her most recent album, 2021’s self-produced Rosegold, saw her exploring electronic sounds. While the songs were as good as ever, I’m just not a huge fan of electronica. This approach allowed Monroe to really get at the deep emotions in songs like “She Wakes Me Up,” which she wrote about her rescue dog, a chihuahua named Betty. When Ashley adopted Betty, she had pneumonia, and the dog’s coughing (which sounded like “Hank,” rather appropriately for a country musician) would wake her up at night.
Monroe started with “There You Are,” followed by the sensual “Hands On You.” She mines similar territory, albeit in a different direction, with “Weed Instead of Roses,” which she called “my raunchiest song.” She called attention to her cowriters, like Chris Stapleton (“If the Devil Don’t Want Me”) and Brendan Benson, lead singer of the Raconteurs (“Hot Rod Pipe Dream”). Brendan, she said is “so rock, and I’m so country.” She singled out the late Guy Clark, praising him as “one of my favorite writers.” She set the scene, as Guy rolled a cigarette and a joint, and asked her to show him what she had. He wasn’t impressed, and he said, “Tell me about you.” Ashley replied that her father died when she was 13 and her mother ran off for a while, though she came back. “Let’s write about that,” Guy said, and “‘Like A Rose’ was born. (These subjects recur in Ashley’s songs, like “Mother’s Daughter,” which was requested but not played Thursday night.)
Watch the official music video for “Like A Rose” by Ashley Monroe on YouTube:
We got a few unexpected covers: the Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby” and “Nights In White Satin.” Ashley mentioned how she moved to Nashville (from Knoxville) when she was 15, and, when she was 19, she wrote “The Truth,” which became a huge hit for Jason Aldean. In Nashville, Monroe met Miranda Lambert, who at first didn’t like her, because she didn’t want there to another blonde girl singer. But the two became friends — they perform and record together in the Pistol Annies, along with Angeleena Presley — and Miranda had a hit with Ashley’s “A Heart Like Mine.”
Monroe finished her set with “Winning Streak,” and, for her encore, played “Housewife’s Prayer,” a Pistol Annies song, and covered Gram Parson’s country-rock classic “Hickory Wind.”
Striking Matches got the evening started with “Six String Baby,” followed by what they said was “the closest thing we’ve written to a bluegrass song.” Their set also included “When It’s Raining” and a cover of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” While they’re from Nashville, I didn’t hear a lot of twang from them.
There was plenty of twang in Monroe’s set, but it showed, beyond that, what a talented singer-songwriter she is. She may be country, but her influences are both broad and deep. She writes beautiful songs, and she sings them beautifully, too.
Here are some photos of Ashley Monroe and Striking Matches performing live at The Atlantis on April 10, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Ari Strauss.
