[AshleySofia]

Hello! I'm new here, but I love guitars and old music and a friend of mine recently introduced me to this site. He told me I should make a post! So, here I am!!! my name is Ashley and I was born and raised in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate NY. I grew up watching my dad play and sing, and when I was 11, I asked him to show me everything we knew. We played and sang our hearts out to Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Young, Paul Simon, The Eagles, John Denver, Jim Croce, Emmy Lou Harris... and those memories of me and him are the some of my absolute most cherished moments of my life. I live in Nashville now, but every time we get together, we find ourselves on a back porch, with our guitars, grinning from ear to ear while we strum and stretch our necks to hit the high notes.

I'm 29, but I was raised on music from the 60's and 70's. That was the time period I fell into while I was growing up, so even though I missed that iconic, culturally magnificent period of time, sometimes it still feels like I lived it because I've dove so deeply into the art and culture and sounds of that time. The radio and music these days (mainstream music of course) doesn't speak to me. I was always on my bedroom floor listening to the Beatles or Dylan or Joni Mitchell and that's the way I've kept it. I just keep diving deeper into older stuff.

I started songwriting in college, put out a record, toured, moved to Nashville, and I'm releasing my second album this September. I'm hoping so much to carry a little bit of the torch of the music that raised me. Those songs weren't just the soundtrack of my life, those songwriters built the very fabric of my being - my philosophies and perspective and identity. I don't claim to be half of the artist that many of my idols were, but I'll try with all my might, for all my days in music to keep the spirit and integrity of art, and the craftsmanship of music back then alive right now.

I was told by Nashville I didn't fit in a box and my lyrics were "too intelligent." and that if I were willing to co-write and "dumb it down" I had a deal. But I felt I couldn't do that. How could I possibly? The music I was raised on, the music that BUILT me, was so beautiful, and complex, and wildly powerful. I walked away from my contract, emptied my personal savings, asked for every favor I could pull in and made my own record. I wrote every song myself. I co-produced it and wrote bass parts and drum parts. I put a Sitar on this record. And Garth Brooks lead guitarist, Johnny Garcia laid a smoking 70's riff and lead on a track called Wasted Time. A six minute song with no chorus. There are nods to Led Zeppelin and The Beatles and Dylan and Prine and Joni and Jim Croce and Paul Simon.

I'm a folk rocker and I was born 30 years too late.

My other problem is my guitar. I've got a Taylor 814ce and it's so beautiful and resonates so gorgeously unplugged, but my Taylor Factory pickup makes it sound buzzy or plastic-y, or sort of like a tin can. Do any of you have advice for this or can you recommend a good pickup for my model of guitar? I've had it fixed twice and I think it (desperately) needs to be replaced entirely.


Thanks for all your time!
Looking forward to reading and diving deeper on this forum. I've heard great things about you guys. Hoping to chat with and meet some kindred spirits here!
-Ashley Sofia


If you'd like to hear a sample of my music: