Now that she is within striking distance of wrapping up a 500-day songwriting project in which she literally wrote and recorded a song a day for 70+ weeks, Memphis native and Season 4 alum of NBC’s The Voice Grace Askew is hitting the road and will bring her raspy and soul-soaked pipes back to Hattiesburg Friday evening for a special performance at The Shop Downtown.
A sixth-generation Memphian, Askew (pronounced “Ask You”) attended college at Loyola in New Orleans and now lives in Nashville, so her sound – although often classified as Americana – has distinct elements of blues, soul, and country.
With six studio albums under her belt, Askew (pronounced “Ask You”) has spent the last 10 years driving her truck, Wanda, all over the country and performing solo gigs and in support of artists like James McMurtry, Leon Russell, Marty Stuart, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Colter Wall, and Hayes Carll, among others.
Spin Magazine describes her as “astoundingly defiant.” Rolling Stone described her voice as “sultry, raw, real, and righteous.”
Her 500-song challenge featuring original tunes performed daily on Instagram and Facebook has garnered attention from followers around the globe and has solidified her reputation as a “relentlessly creative” artist. Her irreverent mantra is “Creativity is a muscle. Dare to suck.”
In the spring of 2013, she made it past the “Blind Auditions” of The Voice with her interpretation of the Nancy Sinatra classic “These Boots are Made for Walking” and found her way onto Team Blake with country music superstar Blake Shelton serving as her coach.
Despite coasting through the “Battle” round with some help from “Me and Bobby McGee,” Askew came up short in the “Knockout” round against the eventual third place finisher, The Swon Brothers.
After her experience on The Voice, Askew has gone on to win several prestigious songwriting competitions including Unsigned Only (First Place, Americana, 2017), the International Songwriting Competition (First Place, Americana, 2016), and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (2014 Grand Prize, Folk).
PBS even featured her recording session at the legendary Sun Studios on its Sun Sessions.
Since 2014, Heath Kleinke has presented hundreds of live music events at The Shop Downtown featuring a wide variety of musical genres.
Friday’s show kicks off at 8 p.m. with Hattiesburg songwriter Mark Mann followed by Askew. Finishing off the evening will be a performance by The Holly Rogers (Jackson Bounds, Carson Mars, Hugh Ford, and Jake Noble).
