Douglas Wesley Ashdown was born in 1942 in Adelaide, South
Australia and at the age of 17 he travelled to England to play in a rock band.
In 1961 he was back in Adelaide and played guitar alongside Bobby Bright as
vocalist in The Bowmen. By 1965, as a solo singer-songwriter, he released his
first album, This Is Doug Ashdown. His 1960s popular singles were
"Something Strange" in 1968, and in 1969, "Whole Lotta Shakin'
Goin On". In 1970, he signed with the independent label, Sweet Peach, and
issued "The Saddest Song of All" in August which peaked at No. 53 on
the Australian Go-Set Singles Chart. The song was written by Ashdown and Jim
Stewart, who became his long-term producer and co-writer. The associated album,
The Age of Mouse, was the first double LP album of original material released
by an Australian. Ashdown and Stewart relocated to the United States, living in
Nashville. While in Nashville, the pair co-wrote "Just Thank Me", for
David Rogers, who released it in 1973—it peaked at No. 17 on the US Country
Music Singles Chart. They also co-wrote "Leave Love Enough Alone"
which Ashdown released in 1974 upon relocation to Sydney. He had a minor hit
with it when it was renamed as "Winter in America" and released in
1976, it peaked at No. 3 in Brisbane,
No. 14 in Melbourne and No. 30 in Sydney. Here to download is his LP from 1968 “Source”
(SBP-233516) released on CBS Records. In 1977, his album, Trees won the TV
Week, an Australian television entertainment magazine, King of Pop Award for
'Best Album Cover'. Ashdown also worked with science fiction writer/songwriter
Terry Dowling on recordings of Dowling's song-cycle "Amberjack",
about a stranded time traveller. Ashdown contributed lead vocals and guitar to
six of the tracks of Dowling's song-cycle which were broadcast by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1977. He continued to release singles
and albums and had minor chart success into the 1980s. As from April 2010, his
most recent album was The Folk Centre Concert in 2007. Thanks again to Rex for lending me this LP to put on the Blog. Flac
