STEPHEN ASHBROOK

Growing up on the West Coast, singer and songwriter Stephen Ashbrook encountered only two albums during his formative years, Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water and Jesus Christ Superstar, which prompted the California native to search his local library for broader listening options. His cited influences spanned John Steinbeck, the Rolling Stones, and Winston Churchill, and he refined his skills inside Tempe, Arizona's thriving late-'90s alt-rock community, where he received The Phoenix Tribune's Best Acoustic Performer honor in both 1998 and 2000. At the White House's invitation he also performed for President William Jefferson Clinton.

Distinguished by his rich baritone, smooth falsetto, and affinity for open-road heartland folk-rock echoing Tom Petty, the Wallflowers, and Joe Henry, Ashbrook issued the EP About Last Night in 1993 and then the self-titled full-length album with his band Satellite in 1995. The critically acclaimed solo debut Navigator appeared in 1998, followed by Drive in 2001 and American B-Sides in 2002, the latter featuring musicians from the Gin Blossoms, the Pistoleros, and Dead Hot Workshop. After that release he relocated to Portland, Oregon, issuing the live collection Double Live @ Long Wong's in 2004 and White Balloons, his sixth studio album, in 2008.