"I love everything I sing on this record," Ashton says. "Songs like ‘You’re Lucky I Love You,’ ‘Closer’ and ‘Breathless’ are just fun to sing. They didn’t change my life, but I love, lyrically, the way they say what they’re saying."

"I always respond to lyrics. ‘Shot For The Moon’ rips my heart out. ‘Can’t Cry Hard Enough’ deals with the very painful reality of what’s going on in your gut when you experience the death of someone close. It wipes you out. I know that when I went through it, the weight was so heavy on my chest that I couldn’t breathe. This song acknowledges that feeling but it also shows a glimpse of hope. The song is very cathartic, even musically it lifts and swirls as the strings come in. You can almost feel yourself being lifted up and breathing again."

A Houston native, Ashton grew up listening to Tammy Wynette, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, as well as Karen Carpenter, Journey, Bad Company and Pure Prairie League. Blessed with a beautiful voice, but shy and introverted, Ashton’s singing career took off before she learned to perform. At age 22 she had her first album on Sparrow records, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies immediately. Now she had to sing those songs to a live audience. She played at a small church in Hendersonville, Tennessee, in front of about 150 people. "I had my ten songs from my album and no idea what to say," she remembers. "So, you know those Laffy Taffy candies? They come individually wrapped with jokes on the wrapper. I took some Laffy Taffy jokes and tried to make a story out of those. It was all I had, and it was horrible."

Horrible, yes, but not discouraging. Susan fought her shyness to reach her goal. She learned by doing, ignoring her wobbly knees and quaking body each time she stepped onto a stage. "I was terrified, but I knew I had to sing," she says. Her strength of purpose and her faith saw her through those times. Over the years, she recorded six albums, sold more than one million records of her own and contributed to the Grammy-winning Amazing Grace: A Country Salute to Gospel (duetting with Billy Dean on "In The Garden") and to Come Together: A Salute to the Beatles ("In My Life," with Gary Chapman).

She always had a foot in the door of country music, singing with Garth Brooks ("She’s Every Woman," "You Move Me"), Patty Loveless ("To Have You Back Again"), Glen Campbell and Paul Overstreet ("What’s Going Without Saying") and Jim Brickman and Collin Raye ("The Gift") among others.

She co-wrote and sang background vocals on "Here In My Heart," recorded by Martina McBride.

Brooks was so impressed, he asked her to open for him during his 1994 European tour. "He was Garth, but I had never seen his concerts, never saw the TV specials, so I didn’t know that," says Susan. "When I got the opening spot on his tour, I got a videotape of his concert at Texas Stadium, popped it into the VCR, and then freaked out. ‘This is what I’m opening for?!’ I started having nightmares. I’d never met Garth before, so I would dream that when we met he wouldn’t even talk to me and would make me clean the green room." Instead, the tour was the beginning of a strong friendship, and a chance for Ashton to keep moving forward as a performer.

All of that work led to the moment she signed with Capitol Records. "The songs I’d done before were almost always serious and introspective, with smidgens of fun," she says. "This time I wanted to do something different," says Ashton. With Emory Gordy, Jr. in the producer’s chair, she found herself making the album of her life.

"The two most significant things that Emory did as my producer were the way in which he pushed me, and the way he encouraged me to let go," Ashton says. "There’s a place on ‘Shot For The Moon,’ when I just - hhhhuuuuhhhh - let out this breath. When I heard it, I felt so vulnerable. I’m not hiding behind lyrics there, it’s pure feeling. But Emory liked it and convinced me to keep it in.

" ‘Can’t Cry Hard Enough’ is a mountain of a song. I was about to give up because I didn’t think I could sing it. Emory took me into a room and said, ‘Susan you can do this. Just get in there, put your head down and your hands up and don’t come out until you’ve conquered this thing.’ He was like a coach, and I went out there and I did it."

In the end, Ashton feels she emerged from the making of Closer a better artist and performer. The fact that this is her first country record makes that success all the sweeter. "I grew up with country music. It’s what I always thought I’d sing. It’s what my friends always thought I’d sing. So I feel that, with this album, I’ve found my way. I’m home."


Click here to read the biography for "A Distant Call"
Click here to read a couple of short biography pieces