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Ashleigh Tidwell : The Beauty in the Darkness
You may have recently heard Ashleigh Tidwell’s singing voice around town if you went to the Chorus Abilene’s Abilene Idol auditions at The Mall of Abilene or to the Abilene Idol Finale at The Paramount, but it definitely won’t be the last time.
Her voice is spreading through Abilene in many avenues and it all started, when she was growing up in Coleman. Both of Ashleigh’s parents were musicians. Dad was a heavy metal lover who rocked the guitar and drums and mom was a pianist. Ashleigh says “from the moment she was born” she was singing. Her dad even told her, when she was a kid, that she sang “A Long December” by the Counting Crows perfectly on key. Her parents gave her a “great foundation of loving music.”
Her mom encouraged her when she told her she wanted to pursue singing. Ashleigh’s mom went to the store and bought her CDs of some of the female greats that she wanted her to learn from: Janet Jackson, Heart, Madonna, and Melissa Etheridge (Ashleigh sang her song “I’m the Only One” for Abilene Idol). “Mom's like, these are the people you need to look into and that are strong singers that have what it takes. That's what you need to do. So I would jam to those CDs over and over again. Particularly I was really big into Ann Wilson.”
Both of her parents were addicts, which caused damage to their relationship. Ashleigh wrote a book of poetry that deals with “being raised by parents who are addicts” and “talks about different kinds of abuse” (It’s Me or the Drugs, available on Amazon) Even though her relationship with her parents was not everything a child needs, music was one good thing that they gave her. When her dad passed away 7 years ago, it pushed Ashleigh to pursue music more. “Depsite the struggles I had with my dad, he really gave me the gift of passion for music. And that is the reason why I am who I am today.”
Her passion for poetry and lyrics came from her grandmother who was an English teacher. Her grandmother was a lover of Edgar Allan Poe, which she passed down to Ashleigh. Some of Ashleigh’s other favorite writers include Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath.
Besides the female idols her mother introduced to her and the poets she loves, Ashleigh also finds inspiration from Linda Perry and Lady Gaga. Linda Perry delves into her childhood that was filled with abuse, in “Let It Die Here” (title of a song, a documentary, and an album) that feeds into her “pattern of self abuse” as an adult. Ashleigh says that she can “really relate to what Linda had said. She said the song particularly is about her struggles with her mother, which she can relate to but the documentary shows how Linda was mentally abused as a child and how this created self-abuse in her as an adult. Ashleigh "relates to that a lot because as a musician, it's like I'm constantly my own worst critic.”
“Lady Gaga has always been a huge influence for me.” She transcends genres. “She did a whole jazzy album with Tony Bennett, and that was incredible. And then she's also a little rock and roll. I've always told people I find her to be a heavy metal pop artist, because she's always been very rock and roll to me.”Lady Gaga does not allow herself to be bound to any one type of music. Ashleigh says that is how a lot of her music is that she puts out under the name Mother Cellar.
Her first song as Mother Cellar, “Creepin” explores the dark and macabre things of life. Ashleigh’s music, like her influences Poe and Plath, show that “life is dark, but it can be beautiful.” She will have a new song out in April/May of this year called “Cemetery Fog,” which she describes as a nu metal song. She has a whole album of lyrics ready to record and she has been working with Fire Ant Recording Stuido on all her songs.
Ashleigh moved to Portland with her husband for a few years and moved to Abilene, when they had children. She knew that when she came back she wanted to find music and she found it in Chorus Abilene’s Abi-Voice. She has been a part of Abi-Voice since 2023.Following the Abilene Idol competition, Ashleigh started a new radio segment called The Flash with Ash on 106.3 The Raider, which airs at 2pm on Fridays. This segment she uses to talk about the local music scene. “ I want to talk about your music. I want to promote it.” If you are interested in being mentioned on The Flash with Ash, you can reach out to Ashleigh on Facebook.
Ashleigh’s Facebook music page, Mother Cellar
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578391736823
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@mothercellar
Link to her book of poetry, It's Me or The Drugs: Poetry Written by a Child of Addicts, on Amazon:
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