Monday, November 9, 2009

Ashley Cleveland

Rockin' Gospel Secret

H/T to Joshua. Here is Ashley Cleveland singing Walk To The Well, from her first album from 1991 Big Town.

The whole album is available as free MP3 downloads from her site here. The MP3 version of the song is a better sound than the youtube video below.

Here's how Joshua and his wife came across this hidden gem:
About 15 years ago, my wife and I were driving around somewhere and happened to hear a singer on the radio who neither of us had ever heard before. The song was called "Walk To The Well"; my wife noted down the performer's name - Ashley Cleveland. Weeks later, back at home in Toronto, I looked for some music by this artist and found none. The following year, while in the very heart of French-speaking Quebec, I found my first Ashley Cleveland CD, entitled BIG TOWN. I loved every track. So did my wife. A couple of years later - the internet had become a reality in the intervening period - we discovered that Ashley Cleveland was the kind of artist to be found under "Christian Music". The penny dropped, and we both felt kinda stupid for not having figured it out before.

We have since purchased everything Ashley Cleveland has ever released, and seen her perform twice in the southwestern USA.

Simply amazing.
I urge you to download the MP3's from her music site linked above. You can experience what Joshua experienced with the first album that she released.



2 comments:

Joshua S. said...

Michael:

Thank you so much. In my previous communication about Ashley Cleveland, I forgot to mention that it was through Ashley Cleveland that we (my wife and I) reconnected with the Christian world. Until then, we had thought of our family as one of God's "little flocks of sheep", but socially speaking we were our own little island. After "getting into" the "Christian rock" sections in various US music stores (and online), we began to form strong connections, bonds and friendships with families like our own in the USA.

Michael, this brings up an important point. My wife, adults children and I all agree that Chistian families are far more common in the United States than in Canada. And we all KEEP noticing it. It's been years now! And it's depressing to us all as Canadians. Just an observation, but maybe one that has been/could be confirmed/denied? I really don't know...

Michael Brandon said...

Joshua:

As always, your comments are important, and so I answered you in this post

http://freethroughtruth.blogspot.com/2009/11/life-in-spirit.html

God Bless You, Brother