Don’t let the sweet demeanor of Ashley Brooke Toussant fool you. Yes, we have a sweet spot for Peter Pan collars, tunes of whimsy, and the mint green nail color she’s sporting on her album cover, but our adoration for this indie folk artist goes far beyond her ability to appear adorable — her tracks pack a precious punch that’s uniquely her own.
With her album’s angelic vocals and enchanting melodies, it’s clear this Midwest maven has been busy perfecting her talent. She recently released her first full-length album Sweetheart, a collaboration with some of her fellow Ohio natives, and with her new music video for its title track on the web, we’re sure her tunes will continue to delight and inspire.
If you happen to be in the Chicago Metropolitan Area on November 16, stop by Ashley’s show with The Sweetback Sisters in Evanston, Illinois at SPACE.
The first 5 folks to comment below with a favorite Midwest-inspired song lyric will win one of Ashley’s CDs! What’s yours?
31 loves 
me please!
Sorry… I love Dectur by Sufan Stevens :)
I often to go to Sufjan Stevens for my Midwest fix…and name-dropping a highway is always fun.
“In the mortal life
Far in the morning light
We’re back from Bloomington
We let the runners win…
Pick it up with the band
On the Ronald Reagan tollway”
(The Henney Buggy Band)
Gotta go with Ben Folds “Kalamazoo”
“Your place on the map has faded away
Must’ve been lost in more than one way
Kalamazoo, don’t you know that I’ve been there too
And it’d put your mind more at ease
If you’d say these words and release
All the way back home”
“And I’ve gotten know her to live with to love her
It’s hard to see her leave
She belongs to her mother and the state of Ohio
I wish she belonged to me
See you sometime, see you sometime”
-Jurado ‘Ohio’
That was Wisconsin that was yesterday
Now I have nothing that I can keep
Cause every place I go I take another place with me
Love is loves mystique
Wisconsin -Bon Iver
‘Cause Tennessee sucks, in the summer
What do you got that can put us under?
-Ryan Adams
Realized Tennesee isn’t considered midwest – so a lyric from Sufjan Stevens’ Come On! Feel the Illinoise!
Oh, great white city
I’ve got the adequate committee
Where have your walls gone?
I think about it now
I don’t care to say what
I failed to recognize
Every single day from the poker to the prize
-Sufjan Stevens
Hopefully since these lyrics are from a song called Springfield, they’ll work!
her voice is so angelic.. i love her! thanks for introducing her to us :)
xx jamie
Counting all the bites from the mosquitoes There goes my Minnesota girl
GREEN DAY – MINNESOTA GIRL
Trendy travelers tend to talk
Of London, Paris, Rome, New York,
Like only they were stylish and unique.
But out in the Midwest
Is the city I love the best,
A town so smart
Its spelling starts
With C-H-I-C–chic!
-”Chicago, Illinois,” from Victor/Victoria
Wait, thought of a better one!
I could shove an ice pick in my eye,
I could eat some fish from last July,
But it wouldn’t be as awful
As a summer in Ohio,
Without cable, hot water, Vietnamese food
Or you.
-”Summer In Ohio” from The Last Five Years
Thanks for sharing, everyone!
Okay I know it’s too late to enter, but I couldn’t help but noone put in the ultimate Midwest Dylan lyric,
Oh my name it is nothing,
my age it means less,
the country I come from
is called the Midwest
With God On Our Side-Bob Dylan