[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Ashley-Solo-Headshot.jpg” _builder_version=”3.0.89″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.89″]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that Ashley Jo Farmer<\/strong> loves to sing.\u00a0 If you ask anyone that knows her, they\u2019ll tell you that she was born to be in the spotlight.\u00a0 Early on in her life, there were a few signs of what was soon to come!\u00a0 Her parents love to tell stories of how, before she could even talk, she attracted attention to herself by singing and dancing in her high chair while they dined out.\u00a0 On one occasion, a man celebrating his birthday across the dining room approached their table and proclaimed his joy at having witnessed her \u201cperformance\u201d — and handed her a $20 bill!\u00a0 At that moment, it became apparent that this little girl was destined to entertain.<\/p>\n

Music has always played a big roll in Ashley Jo’s life. As a child, she received private piano lessons and also sang in her church’s youth choir, her first exposure to choral and public performance.\u00a0 She sang her first solo \u201cNo Man Is An Island\u201d at age eleven, under the direction of Reverend Bob Shaver.\u00a0 Each summer the Youth Choir went on a mini-tour, performing up and down the East Coast and acting as singing missionaries.\u00a0 During this time she also was a member of the show choir at Daniels Middle School, performing \u201cWhere The Boys Are\u201d as an eighth grader in the school\u2019s Spring Show.<\/p>\n

Ashley Jo graduated from\u00a0Needham B. Broughton High School<\/a>\u00a0in 1995, after having been a member of the high school\u2019s touring\/competing Show Choir for four years.\u00a0 During her high school career she studied music and music theory under the direction of\u00a0Director C. Kraig McBroom<\/a>.\u00a0 She held chorus roles in several of the school\u2019s musicals, including \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d and \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d and she performed solos in each of the twelve performances the Show Choirs put on during her four years at the school.\u00a0 The high school group also traveled together for various Show Choir competitions.\u00a0 At this same time, she was a member of the Capital City Girls Choir at Meredith College, under the direction of\u00a0\u00a0Dr. Fran M. Page<\/a>.\u00a0 She also spent one summer participating in the Teen Arts Program at Theatre In The Park in Raleigh, NC under the direction of\u00a0Ira David Wood<\/a>, and another summer participating in the Brightleaf Music Workshop at\u00a0Duke University in Durham, NC under the direction of\u00a0Daniel M. Huff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After high school, Ashley Jo attended\u00a0Mars Hill College<\/a>, with a declared major of Vocal Technique and a minor in Musical Theatre.\u00a0 She was a member of the touring Mars Hill College Choir under the direction of\u00a0Dr. Joel F. Reed<\/a>.\u00a0 She also tapped into her \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d interests and acted as Stage Manager for the Drama Department\u2019s production of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d during her freshman year.\u00a0 \u00a0Before she got her degree, she left Mars Hill and moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia where she waited tables and frequented the local karaoke bars for fun.<\/p>\n

She started a family, and in 1999 she settled down in Salisbury NC where she still lives now.\u00a0 Her husband Tommy put together a bluegrass band with a couple of friends.\u00a0 She started performing with them as a backup singer, and they toured locally under the name Campfire Revue.\u00a0 After a few roster changes, the band changed their name to\u00a0No9Coal<\/a>, and although she left the band in 2004 (shortly before the birth of her son) she still sits in with them now and then. \u00a0When her son was a year old, she began working for\u00a0Hit Music Studios, with producers Jimm Mosher and Alan Grossman, singing background vocals for various artists.\u00a0 Today she still performs radio jingles and voiceovers for local advertising companies and background vocals for select artists when she’s not on tour.<\/p>\n

In 2005 Ashley Jo was introduced to\u00a0Billy Jonas<\/a><\/span>, world-renowned Folk artist and Industrial Re-percussionist.\u00a0 He invited her to become a permanent fixture in his band, and she began touring with him.\u00a0 In the last nine years she has traveled with the Billy Jonas Band across the United States playing at many notable venues, and along the way rubbing shoulders with a few of the country\u2019s finest musicians, including the likes of Peter Yarrow, Bela Fleck, Roger Day, River Guerguerian, Beth Wood, Claudia Schmidt, Allison Krauss, Chris & Meredith Thompson and Canadian folk band Tanglefoot. Notably, during Easter of 2010, the Billy Jonas Band was invited to play at the White House Easter Egg Roll where Ashley Jo had the privilege of meeting and taking a photo with First Lady Michelle Obama as well as many of her favorite celebrities. The touring Billy Jonas Band is Billy Jonas and Ashley Jo Farmer, Sherman Hoover and Juan Holladay.<\/p>\n

Ashley also performs with her own original band, the Ashley Jo Farmer Band.\u00a0 She is also an advocate for domestic\/spousal abuse and co-founded an annual fundraiser called CHICKWEED to raise money for the Rowan Family Crisis Council.\u00a0 She released her first solo album called “Wise Up House Love” on September 11th 2012, and her first collaboration album with the Billy Jonas Band called “Build It Back Again” on October 23rd, 2014. Her second collaboration album with the Billy Jonas Band called “habayta (homeward)”, New Jewish songs of Joy and Spirit, was released in December 2015.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

www.AshleyJoFarmer.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s no secret that Ashley Jo Farmer loves to sing.\u00a0 If you ask anyone that knows her, they\u2019ll tell you that she was born to be in the spotlight.\u00a0 Early on in her life, there were a few signs of what was soon to come!\u00a0 Her parents love to tell stories of how, before she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/259"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1436,"href":"http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/259\/revisions\/1436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/togetherasonemusic.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}