Susan Rae Hill entered the world in Irving, Texas, on July 17, 1967. Performing as an adult contemporary vocalist, she issued her debut single under her mother’s maiden name, Ashton, so listeners would not mix her up with Kim Hill. That track found steady airplay on CCM stations nationwide in 1991 and turned Wakened by the Wind into the strongest-selling first release in Sparrow’s history. Two additional singles from the project also topped the Christian charts that same year, after which she earned the Dove Award for New Artist of the Year and took the CCM readers-and-reporters poll as Best New Artist.
Her follow-up, Angels of Mercy, arrived in 1992 and confirmed her staying power by producing four more CCM chart-toppers while earning a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Gospel Album. In 1993 she captured the CCM readers award for Favorite Inspirational Album and the reporters poll for Best Female Artist; she came close but ultimately fell short of three Dove honors—Female Vocalist of the Year, Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year, and Contemporary Album of the Year. That year also marked her marriage to John David Cunningham and the release of her self-titled third album, which yielded two number-one singles. A 1994 Dove nomination for Female Vocalist of the Year followed.
Venturing beyond solo work, Ashton teamed with Margaret Becker and Christine Dente on the 1994 project Down the Road. Readers later voted it Favorite Inspirational Album and Favorite Vocal Event in the 1995 polls, while Dove nominations arrived for Group of the Year and Recorded Music Packaging of the Year; she herself received another Female Vocalist of the Year nod. Her 1995 compilation So Far…The Best of Susan Ashton Volume 1 collected earlier hits. The next year she moved to Chordant and issued Distant Call. Her first Capitol album, Closer, appeared in mid-1999.
