Ashlea Jonesmith

Having recently come off of their tour from Southern Ontario to the West Coast of Canada, Ashlea Jonesmith and her partner, Oliver Heywood-Jones are now residing on Denman Island, just off of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The January tour included shows in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC at bars, restaurants, cafés, and a church. The final gig in Vancouver raised over $500 for relief efforts in Haiti. Jonesmith began performing original music to audiences of hundreds at the age...

Having recently come off of their tour from Southern Ontario to the West Coast of Canada, Ashlea Jonesmith and her partner, Oliver Heywood-Jones are now residing on Denman Island, just off of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The January tour included shows in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC at bars, restaurants, cafés, and a church. The final gig in Vancouver raised over $500 for relief efforts in Haiti. Jonesmith began performing original music to audiences of hundreds at the age of thirteen. A year and a half later she was chosen from several auditioning performers to represent Muskoka’s talent at Mariposa Folk Festival. She quickly became well known in her hometown of Bracebridge, Ontario, and was sought-out to perform at many events and venues throughout Muskoka. Further down the line, Jonesmith moved to Toronto to study at York University. She was introduced to the Toronto music scene and began gigging regularly in the city. She later traveled to the music-rich city of Nelson, British Columbia, where she continued to perform, and was inspired by the many talented musicians living and traveling through town. There she met her husband and partner in crime, Oliver Heywood-Jones, who was studying at music school. The duo set out back east and spent three years in Toronto where they got heavily involved in the music scene, as a duo, and separately. They are now seeking out performance opportunities on the West Coast of British Columbia. “As haunting and beautiful as the land she so clearly represents, Ashlea Jonesmith's exquisite voice and compositions capture the natural spirit of Canada and her burgeoning body politic...a revelation and a joy to the ear.” – Dan Blair, Owner, MatchVox Studio, Toronto. "Ashlea sings from the heart with songs that are intensely personal yet universal in emotional and spiritual appeal. She exudes fun, friendship and passion in her music." - Tom Kremer, festival coordinator, Lose Yer Shoes Folkadelic Festival “A powerful, emotionally charged voice and a distinct sincerity that is reminiscent of what great country music used to be.” – Matt Attfield, Promoter. "With all the new music that you may happen to hear, you may want to take a second listen when you come across the voice of Ashlea Jonesmith. Her heartfelt songs with beautiful, simple, and true melodies, swiftly seep into the soul. It was a pleasure and privilege to work with Ashlea and to have had the chance to experience the unique openness of Ashlea's call." – Jamie Matsukubo, Producer, MatchVox Studio, Toronto. “It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what genre of music Jonesmith’s work fits into, but it is easy to say that you will be mesmerized from the moment this songbird opens her mouth. The music is folksy, familiar and comforting.” – Kristan Farlie, The Bracebridge Examiner and Gravenhurst Banner. “Her experiences resonate with our own. Her words soothe the bruised pieces of our hearts. Her debut album—The Things That Stay With Me, which was released last year—holds two universal stories. The first is of someone living life and love unapologetically. The other is of someone searching for a voice, for a place in the world.” – Carolyn Nikodym, The Fernie Fix. ~EXTENDED BIO~ Ashlea Jonesmith learned to read, write and take a kick in the shins at Monk Public School in the small town of Bracebridge, Ontario. While the other kids were playing dodge ball and kissing tag, Ashlea Jonesmith was writing songs on 1 CM graph paper, in an abandoned tree fort behind her elementary school. She wrote songs instead of research papers, and she wrote songs instead of math equations, and when she got in trouble for it, she wrote songs. The summer before High School began, Ashlea picked up the guitar and asked her father to teach her a few chords. Over the next two years she shoved her nerves into her back pocket and performed her original tunes at as many coffee houses, school assemblies and town events as possible. In 1998, at the age of 15, Ashlea went to an audition and was chosen among several other singers, most twice her age, to perform at Mariposa Folk Festival, which was held in Muskoka that year. And so she did, and with that vote of confidence she went on to play at other festivals, fairs, restaurants and eventually bars and pubs around Toronto, Muskoka and other parts of Ontario as well at the British Columbia Kootenays. The years went by and after recording many tracks on home made studio setups, Ashlea, now living in Toronto with her partner in both music and life, Oliver Heywood-Jones, was looking for a way to make a more professional recording. That’s when Ashlea met Jamie Matsukubo of MatchVox Studio in Toronto, Ontario. Jamie, a producer and engineer, and Dan Blair, the owner of MatchVox, heard Ashlea’s home recordings and offered her a recording deal that she couldn’t refuse. A few months later, in March 2008, Ashlea released the album, The Things That Stay With Me. The album consisted of ten choice songs written over the past seven years, all of which represented significant occurrences in Ashlea’s personal and political history. For over a year, Ashlea and Oliver performed Toronto and Muskoka venues, promoting her album. In 2009 Ashlea wrote the song “If You Go It Alone” which quickly became a favorite among her listeners. Ashlea, at that point living and working back home in Bracebridge, decided to record the song at home at have it mixed and mastered by Jamie Matsukubo. Ashlea tacked that recording on to her album as a secret song for fans who purchase the album at shows. In the mean time, Ashlea completed, in good standing, a diploma in Metal Art at Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson, BC, and an Undergrad degree at York University in Toronto Ontario. (Those elementary school grades mattered not, and Ashlea vows never to give her kids trouble about their sixth-grade report cards.) Ashlea Jonesmith has been compared in “move over …” lines to such artists at Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLaughlan and Sheryl Crow, and perhaps more appropriately to Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards and Natalie Mains of The Dixie Chicks. Ashlea Jonesmith mixes the sounds of traditional North American folk music with the current vibes of alt-country and indie pop-rock. Instrumentation Ashlea Jonesmith: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar Oliver Heywood-Jones: Acoustic Bass, Various Instruments Often accompanied by guest musicians, such as family members Blair and Bronwyn Smith, or friend Steve Brockley. Discography The Things That Stay With Me: 2008 Up Until Now: 2006 (Home recording, very limited edition.)