Both with her tight Naomi Ashley Band (including fiddle-virtuoso Cathie Van Wert) and as a solo artist, Naomi regularly appears at leading Chicago-area venues, including: Fitzgerald’s, SPACE, Schubas and Uncommon Ground. And at major regional venues, including the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, Michigan.

Her popularity and breadth of great material — from double-over funny to double-bourbon heartbreak — make Naomi a versatile and sought-after opener for national acts, including Carrie Rodriguez, Fred Eaglesmith, Paul Thorn, Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles, Cheryl Wheeler and Antje Duvokot. And with the recent release of her haunting masterpiece Another Year Or So — praised by reviewers as “brilliant” and “one of the top five albums of 2007” — her profile continues to grow regionally and nationally.

Recently, Another Year Or So garnered a Best New Folk Song of 2009 nomination at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards for the heart-wrenching honky-tonk waltz Linda.

Naomi first gained notice with the release of her inaugural CD, the six-song Love and Other Crap in 2001. Recorded in a friend’s basement, are shockingly funny, tough and perceptive takes on the insanity of love. Or as one cheerfully addled stalker puts it, “Folks say I’m crazy. I say I’m crazy in love.”

In 2002, she released her first full-length album Small Town Thing with her country-rock band Naomi Ashley and County Fair. In Small Town Thing Naomi reached back to her rural roots with lyrical narratives described as “being ripped straight from the headlines of small town newspapers and barroom conversations.” Also an adept comedic performer, in 2004 Naomi began performing on Chicago’s comedy and cabaret circuits as half of the comedy-folk duo Naomi & Ben.

Recently expanding her scope to the medium of performance art, Naomi collaborates with celebrated Chicago spoken-word artists — such as poetry slams founding father Marc Smith and acclaimed writer and storyteller David Kodeski — both in the recording studio and in performance.

Naomi currently resides on Chicago’s northside with husband, bluegrass musician Ben Benedict and their two cats.