Shepherd Cultivates Where Country Grows Release

Ashton Shepherd’s sophomore album Where Country Grows hit stores yesterday (7/12), and the young MCA singer/songwriter is making the media rounds to support it. The album’s title track and second single is currently going for adds at country radio.

Shepherd’s album launch week kicked off last Friday (7/8) with a high profile performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. (See video here). This week she’s on the road in the South, visiting a different city every day to promote Where Country Grows.

On Monday (7/11) Shepherd traveled to her home state of Alabama, where she gave a live on-air performance at WDXB/Birmingham. She journeyed farther south on Tuesday (7/12) when she visited with WKSJ/Mobile before an in-store event at Wal-Mart. Today (7/13) Shepherd is in Atlanta, where she will visit both WKHX and WUBL, do an in-store signing, and be taped by AOL for an episode of their “On The Road” feature. Thursday (7/14), she’ll head to Knoxville for an in-store signing and a visit with WIVK. Later, she will perform with full band at Cotton Eyed Joe. Shepherd will return to Nashville Friday (7/15) for a WKDF listener luncheon performance at Whiskey Bent and a full band performance later that night at Tin Roof/Lexington, KY.

Early reviews for Where Country Grows have been very positive. Rolling Stone gave the album four stars and declared her an “Artist To Watch.” Entertainment Weekly awarded the album with an A-, and the Washington Post selected Shepherd as one of the five top new artists in all genres to watch in 2011. MusicRow’s Robert Oermann writes that he is “hopelessly in love with this artist” in today’s “DISClaimer” column.

(L to R): UMGN's Tom Lord, WKSJ/Mobile morning co-host Shelby, Shepherd, WKSJ PD Bill Black and MCA's Louie Newman