"From Housewife And Mother To Budding Country Star": AP Profiles Ashton Shepherd

Country singers often joke that they're a "10-year-overnight success" because no one really makes it in this business overnight, but some have a faster route to success than others.

About two years ago, Ashton Shepherd was a young housewife and mother from south Alabama who wrote songs and sang them in her backyard shed. The extent of her professional experience was playing bars in a makeshift band with her husband, Roland, and brother-in-law, Adam Cunningham; Shepherd and Roland both played guitar, while Adam played bass.

She won a talent contest and recorded a three-song demo that by fluke landed her an audition with Luke Lewis, chairman of Universal Music Group Nashville, in January 2007.