Ashley Jo Farmer was born in Dallas, Texas in March of 1977 to Tom and Jo Campbell. She is the eldest of their four children. As a child, Ashley received piano lessons from Tom Mann of Mann Music Studios. At Trinity Baptist Church, Ashley Jo joined the Youth Choir, her first exposure to choral and public performance. She sang her first solo "No Man Is An Island" at age eleven, under the direction of Reverend Bob Shaver. Each summer the Youth Choir went on a mini-tour, performing up and down the East Coast and acting as singing missionaries. During this time she also was a member of the show choir at Daniels Middle School, performing "Where The Boys Are" in the school's Spring Show.
Ashley Jo graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1995, after having been a member of the high school's touring/competing Show Choir for four years. During her high school career she studied music and music theory under the direction of Director C. Kraig McBroom. She held chorus roles in several of the school's musicals, including "The Wizard of Oz" and "Little Shop of Horrors" and she performed solos in each of the twelve performances the Show Choirs put on during her four years at the school. The high school group also traveled together for various Show Choir competitions. At this same time, she was a member of the Capital City Girls Choir at Meredith College, under the direction of Dr. Fran M. Page. She also spent one summer participating in the Teen Arts Program at Theatre In The Park in Raleigh, NC under the direction of Ira David Wood, and another summer participating in the Brightleaf Music Workshop at Duke University in Durham, NC under the direction of Daniel M. Huff.
After high school, Ashley Jo attended Mars Hill College, with a declared major of Vocal Technique and a minor in Musical Theatre. She was a member of the touring Mars Hill College Choir under the direction of Dr. Joel F. Reed. She also tapped into her "behind the scenes" interests and acted as Stage Manager for the Drama Department's production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" during her freshman year. Before she got her degree, she left Mars Hill and moved to Virginia Beach, where she waited tables and frequented the local karaoke bars for fun.
She started a family and in 1999 she settled down in Salisbury NC, where she still lives now. Her husband Tommy put together a bluegrass band with a couple of friends. She started performing with them as a backup singer, and they toured locally under the name Campfire Revue. After a few roster changes, the band changed their name to No9Coal, and although she left the band in 2004 (shortly before the birth of her son) she still sits in with them now and then. When her son was a year old, she began working for Hit Music Studios, with producers Jimm Mosher and Alan Grossman, singing background vocals for various artists. She also performs radio jingles and voiceovers for local advertising companies.
In 2005 Ashley Jo was introduced to Billy Jonas, a world-renowned Folk artist. He invited her to become a permanent fixture in his band, and she began touring with him. In the last six years she has traveled with the Billy Jonas Band across the United States playing at many notable venues, and along the way rubbing shoulders with a few of the country's finest musicians, including the likes of Peter Yarrow, Bela Fleck, Roger Day, River Guerguerian, Beth Wood, Claudia Schmidt, Allison Krauss, The Thompson Twins, and Canadian folk band Tanglefoot. Easter of 2010, the Billy Jonas Band was invited to play at the White House Easter Egg Roll where Ashley Jo had the privilege of meeting and taking a photo with First Lady Michelle Obama as well as many other celebrities.
Still contracting vocal work through Hit Music Studios and touring with Billy Jonas at the same time, these days Ashley Jo has her sights set on a more personal project. She's got her own band of amazing musicians - her husband Tommy on bass, Alan Grossman on guitar, and Louis Bodak on drums. They tour the East Coast and volunteer their time to play benefits and Pride Events. She's also working on her first full album. Her CD will be a culmination of songs she's written/co-written over the past ten years, to be released soon.
