I first met Ashley Campbell when I wrote an in-depth story about her father, Glen Campbell, and his battle with Alzheimer’s more than one decade ago. We did the interview in Nashville, and later, she even came back and played banjo for the newsroom at Christmas.
To sit with her and her partner, Thor Jensen, by a roaring fireplace in Killarney, Ireland, on Wednesday as they sipped non-alcoholic Guinness from gravity glasses wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card. But it should have been. They are lovely. With her new blonde pixie haircut, Campbell looks every inch an edgy European creative. She said she and Thor, who have formed the duo Campbell Jensen, were doing dry January – hence the non-alcoholic beer.
Ashley played with her father while he was still alive. Glen Campbell succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease in 2017. The Campbell family lived in Nashville in Glen Campbell’s final years, and Ashley embarked on a solo career with Big Machine Label Group. While her record deal didn’t go as hoped, she still tears up when discussing her dad.
Videos by American Songwriter
“I Like to Think He’d Be Really Proud of Me”
“I would like to think he’d be really proud of me and encouraging because I keep getting closer and closer to the advice he always gave me, which was to just not think about what you think other people might want to hear and just make music that you want to hear and that rings true with you,” she said. “I feel like with every new song I write and record, I’m getting closer and closer to that.”
Campbell Jensen released their debut album, Turtle Cottage, in November of 2023. Ashley will share her new song on Friday. Her upcoming solo album, Goodnight Nashville, will be available in June.
Ashley started her career in Nashville with Big Machine Label Group, and she notes that’s precisely what it was – a machine. She felt tremendous pressure to write songs for radio.
“That’s the classic recipe for disaster,” she said, slowly sipping her beer. “Writing a song to be successful is not going to be successful. I’m just trying to get fully into writing to create something that means something.”
Ashley Campbell: Writing for Radio is a Classic Recipe for Disaster
Ashley has the sweet and pure voice of an angel. Paired with her adept skills on banjo and Jensen’s mastery of the complicated gypsy jazz guitar style, the couple are a musical force. They’re in Killarney for the Your Roots Are Showing conference, a gathering of the international music community to celebrate folk/Americana music and share best business practices.
Campbell Jensen played a showcase later that night that wowed the audience to the point that people talked about it for days. Ashley’s style is not her dad’s – it’s her own. And she’s dedicated herself to perfecting it – and enjoying it.
Ashley wanted to learn the gypsy jazz guitar style and asked her friends if they knew anyone who taught it. When someone pointed her to Thor, who had just moved to Nashville from Massachusetts, she reached out. They became a couple – and a duo – soon after. Ashley had also spent a lot of time in Europe, and she knew she wanted to move. Thor was open to the idea, and the couple hopped across the pond for good in August of 2023. Now, they call London home and tour extensively throughout the U.K.
Ashley Campbell Feels Close to Glen Campbell in the U.K.
“I’ve always felt really at home over here,” Ashley said. “I just love it. I don’t miss the States. I miss our community and our friends in Nashville, and I do miss that strong presence of music that you feel when you’re in Nashville. But lifestyle-wise, I just feel right at home in London.”
Her music has evolved along with her lifestyle. Ashley said her first album is more country pop, while her second record is more classic retro country. With her latest music, she’s swiftly moving toward Americana and folk.
“It’s still pretty mellow,” she said. “I’m a mellow chick.”
Ashley hasn’t done much of her songwriting in the U.K. yet, so she isn’t sure how her international move and lifestyle change will impact her songwriting, but she does think it will be a significant factor.
Thor saw the couple’s booking agent at the bar and slipped out of his chair to talk to him. When he returned, Thor noted that while people in the U.K. and the U.S. speak the same language, their phrasing is different, which informs their performance. So if a U.K. band covers a classic country song, they’ll get really close to the original. But it won’t be exact.
“This Is Not An Insult”
“This is not an insult whatsoever,” he said. “It’s the same content through a different filter. Not a worse filter. Not a better filter. Just a different filter.”
The couple are writing their next Campbell Jensen album now. Ashley said it’s a “really fun moment in songwriting life” when you get to start writing the next record. The couple is excited to release new music, go on tour, and play it for the world. She said there’s always a bit of fear when she starts writing a new project because she worries she won’t like what she writes.
But she does it anyway. The new album won’t be as loved-up as the last. The couple is older and moved an ocean away from their families.
“I’m having existential crisis thoughts every day just of like, ‘What is life? Is this even reality? Are we in a simulation?’” she said. “My memories, I feel like I’ve lived several lifetimes. There’s all kinds of soul-searching and trying to arrange my perception of reality into something manageable and not scary.”
Ashley Cambell is Having Existential Crisis Thoughts Daily
She knows she feels her father with her while she plays, particularly in the U.K., where Glen Campbell was so beloved. Ashley played with her dad on tour tours in the U.K. when she was in his band and saw the adoration firsthand.
“When people know my dad, and they connect me with him, and there’s such a positivity around that about his music and this joy that he brought to so many people, it makes me feel not so far from him and from my past and my family,” she said. “It’s very comforting.”
Now that she lives in London, Ashley tries to bring his energy with her wherever she goes.
“Inside of us is the only place that those we love can continue to live,” she said. “We keep their memory alive through the lessons they taught us.”
“We Keep Their Memory Alive Through the Lessons They Taught Us”
It was a teary moment for both of us. I lost my dad two months ago.
After more than an hour, we slide our chairs back across the wooden floor and stand to leave. Ashley invites me to watch her play in the same pub later that night.
I arrived at 9:45 p.m. to a packed room and an audience that spilled down the stairs. People gushed praise for Ashley and Thor in the following days, but they weren’t around to hear it. They were already on stage in another Ireland town.
For more information, visit Ireland.com or showingroots.com/.
Photo by Colin Gillen
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.