‘The Moon’ shines a light on Ashleigh Dallas’ family life, and is the final piece of the puzzle for her upcoming album.
Family means everything to the 2022 Female Artist of the Year Golden Guitar winner and, after welcoming baby Lillian to their family on May 31, merely a month later, Ashleigh welcomes a new musical baby with this single.
‘The Moon’ came to the Kootingal singer-songwriter via a prompt from Sam Hawksley’s Song Club. Each week the participants of Song Club write a song from a prompt, which was ‘a dollar and the moon’ on this occasion.
“It was written very late at night and (husband) Chris was away, I was home because of COVID lockdowns and it was that idea that you would trade the dollar to be under the moon with all those people you love,” Ashleigh said.
“The story connected with me and it was a bit emotional to write because Chris and I have juggled with both of us having to go away to work throughout our relationship, but the ultimate dream is that you could be together all the time, but life isn’t that simple.”
In the song, ‘The Moon’ is the constant in their lives because, no matter where they are when they’re apart, they’re standing under the same moon.
It’s a concept that many people deal with, and is sure to resonate with Ashleigh’s listeners.
“Whenever you leave your family home, or the people you love, you go away knowing that you love what you do, but you yearn for what’s back home,” she said.
“It was 100 per cent my diary entry because playing gigs away often means being in motels on our own. When you do go away, people think it is a glamorous lifestyle and it does have its perks, but most of the time you have to go back to a motel room on your own and scroll through a phone looking at what you’re missing out at home.”
The Dallas family now has two children and Chris has work close to home in Tamworth, but Ashleigh is preparing to head back out on the road when the time is right.
“When I wrote this, with the stop on working away for musicians, it was a different life to be adjusting to because I’ve been travelling and juggling jobs since the age of 14,” she said.
“You miss the bug of travelling, but when you’ve created a family, you need to be home. This is my final single before the full album comes, so I hope it engages and connects with people and makes them think of their own story.”
Ashleigh’s music is all about songs and stories from the heart and she won two Golden Guitars in April in Tamworth for Female Artist of the Year and CMT Video Clip of the Year with Luke O’Shea for ‘Long Way ‘Round’ .