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Ashley Monroe: Tiny Desk Concert

By Stephen Thompson
Published November 3, 2013 at 2:00 AM EST

In the last few years, Ashley Monroe has cobbled together an impressive country-music pedigree by working alongside both upstarts (Pistol Annies with Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley) and longtime Nashville veterans (Vince Gill produced Monroe's solo album Like a Rose), and even collaborating with Jack White every now and then. Monroe belongs to a remarkable wave of gifted young country-singing women who've surfaced with great records in 2013 — a list that also includes Kacey Musgraves, Holly Williams, Brandy Clark and others — while tapping into the relatable searches and struggles of everyday people.

This three-song set at the Tiny Desk, performed with the aid of guitarist John Shaw, captures a nice cross-section of Monroe's appeal: The title track from Like a Rose tells an optimistic story of survival, the ambivalent ballad "You Got Me" chronicles ill-advised romantic obsession, and, of course, the Top 40 country hit "Weed Instead of Roses" functions as a playful, fun-loving mission statement. Speaking of "Weed Instead of Roses," which closes this charming performance, Monroe says the straitlaced Gill insisted upon the song's inclusion on Like a Rose — even going so far as to declare it a condition of his producing the album. The guy knew what he was talking about, both in his support of the song and of Monroe herself.

Set List

  • "Like A Rose"

  • "You Got Me"

    •
  • "Weed Instead Of Roses"

    • Credits

    Producers: Denise DeBelius, Stephen Thompson; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Becky Harlan; photo by Chloe Coleman/NPR

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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    Stephen Thompson
    Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
    See stories by Stephen Thompson

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