It’s impossible to take your eyes off Ashlie Amber.
Videos by American Songwriter
The rising country star with the magnetic smile and the “’fro-hawk” hairstyle was recently on the debut episode of the new Apple TV+ television series, My Kind of Country. The show, which is produced by Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves, features hosts Mickey Guyton, Jimmie Allen and Orville Peck in search of the best country artists from around the globe. On it, Amber was quickly complemented for her signature look by Guyton, who also underscored what Amber brings to a song, vocally.
Indeed, Amber is many things. She’s a rising country artist and she’s a social media darling, earning fame with viral videos hitting upwards of 15 million views. Her increasing footprint and visibility, she says, are important to her, to her heart. By unabashedly being who she is—a mixed-race Black woman in her thirties working to become a big name in country music—she can show others who will come after her that their goals are valuable, real and achievable.
Amber, whose latest single, “Crazy For You,” recently dropped in conjunction with the new Apple show, says she has more music on the way soon. A blend of country and pop that your ears won’t be able to forget, either.
“It’s got a little bit of swag to it,” Amber tells American Songwriter, speaking about her upcoming new songs. “I love the word swag. Country music has definitely been changing and evolving on its own. And [the new songs] fall right in line with what country music is doing. But it’s also from a female perspective.”
Amber is on a roll. She’s full speed ahead. While she’s gained the attention of live audiences via her regular headlining cruise ship performances of late, her recorded music is only gaining more traction. She’s also recently begun working with a new team of people comprised of diverse talents and backgrounds, which, she says, “is not something I’m used to, actually.”
Amber, who grew up in the suburbs as the only Black girl around, is used to having to explain herself to combat preconceived notions of who she is. People expect that she might “take them to church” with soulful vocal runs. But her voice is more subtle, less priest, and more pop star with a country lean. She grew up listening to top 40, artists like Shania Twain, Whitney Houston and Faith Hill. She came to Dolly Parton later in life, learning that her “I Will Always Love You” hit the airwaves first as a country track.
“Being Black isn’t a sound,” says Amber. “I didn’t grow up singing in church, I grew up singing pop music.”
At six years old, Amber remembers singing in the backseat of her family’s car. Her father at one point turned the radio off, cutting the song she was singing along to, and when he put the radio back on, Amber was in key and on beat, right where the song was, too. He turned to her and asked, “Did you know you could sing?” She said affirmatively, “Uh-huh!” That’s when a feeling became a passion.
Amber’s father passed away when she was 12. At the time, Amber and the family were big into sports. But after that, she couldn’t even be forced to go to soccer practice. Instead, she found solace in her bedroom, singing for hours, belting Whitney. Amber dove into songs, trying to figure out how they worked. But she also loved the performative side, the showmanship that music can offer.
“I was kind of a distracted piano student,” she laughs. “I was that kid that was like, ‘Why don’t you just play it, so I can sing it?’”
Amber got better through repetition, singing songs over and over again. Now that work is paying off in big ways. She was contacted two years ago about My Kind of Country and while on the show, which is airing now, Amber got to be around some of the best and most talented people in her field. All the while, her presence on social media is increasing too. Amber likes being more than one thing. She likes writing, recording and releasing songs. She likes being on television and she likes interacting with the “endless” fan base that social media can provide—especially when by doing so, she offers positive representation for others who look like her and want to do what she’s done in arts and entertainment.
“I never wanted to be just one thing,” says Amber. “I think it’s important to have other avenues.”
Social media, too, is where fans can see how striking Amber is from her voice to her hair. “I do have this hair,” she says. “That is quite the conversation… It’s a powerful thing, showing young girls who look like me that it’s okay to wear your natural hair. It’s okay to let it be big and let it be proud.”
Amber says she’s received many messages from fans thanking her for being bold in her look, thanking her for the inspiration to look how they’ve always wanted to. “I get to have both sides,” she says. “Music and the personality along with it.”
For Amber, diving into a career as a musician has been integral to her finding out who she is. Whether she’s struck by an idea for a song or working with an open mind in a co-writing session, doing the work has shown her she belongs. As a kid, she enveloped herself in song—an escape that brought her to herself. It wasn’t for naught. “Songwriting has shown me that I can,” she says.
She recalls a conversation a few years ago with a “very big person in Nashville,” who complimented her look, her sound and the music. But then, he said, she somehow didn’t seem “authentic” enough. Empowered by an I’ll show you mentality, Amber wrote 14 songs in the next 14 days. One of those tracks, “Those Nights,” which American Songwriter premiered in 2021, landed on countless important industry playlists, jumpstarting her career in earnest.
“Nobody is going to tell me that I am not authentic enough to exist in this space that I have loved and adored for so long,” Amber says. “I deserve to be here.”
Photo by Sara Lee Saleh / Courtesy Ashlie Amber
