Our readers must surely like the way Ashley Staley sings, because they keep voting her our best female vocalist, first back in 2021, and now again in 2023. This year she's added keyboards to her Best of Springfield winner's wall, and it's notable that no one has done both in the same year before.
Her singing and keyboard-ing mostly takes place in the duo JackAsh, a partnership with Jack Stege from when they were both in the popular area cover band Off the Wall. Now she spends her in-front-of-folks time mainly with the JackAsh combo, and that seems to suit her and her audience just fine.
Which gets more attention, the singing or the playing, one may ask? Well, our winner keeps them both on an even keel, with vocalizing likely getting the upper hand when it comes right down to it, but one may be hard-pressed to tell. With influences such as Lady Gaga driving Staley to keep making her best continue to get better, it's easy to see how the best female vocalist in town is now also the best keyboardist as well. And with so many posts on her Facebook page saying, "We love you Ashley!," let's all join in to say, "We love you too, Ashley!"
