Originally from Boise, Idaho, Asa Menlove now spends his days making music in a shed in Bellingham, Washington. His debut LP "Country Western Hero," draws influence from household names in country music like Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt, and Johnny Cash, with a few songs inspired by the abstract prose of songwriters like Jeff Tweedy or David Crosby. Asa is a guitar player by default, but fools around with banjo, piano, bass and drums--all of which he played and recorded on the album. Asa’s songwriting can be as imaginative and nonsensical as you please, and adversely and equally raw and vulnerable. His most acclaimed work thus far is the song "The Greens Of The Once-King," an almost medieval tale which tells the story of an ancient tree who meets his fate at the hands of an evil power wielding axes and the hopeful future which exists after the King falls. Songs like "Stanley Sky," "Break Open My Head," and the album's closing track "Fruiting Body" all lean into blending elements of country and folk with psychedelia and fantasy, all the while following and pre-cursing the country and western tunes like “Chiang Mai Blues,” "Steady Loving Man" and "I Don't Wanna Shoot With You, Harvey." When accompanied onstage by his backing band, “Sixteen Fluid Ounces” (or, colloquially, The Tall Boys), expect a set full of songs written and played for two-stepping, swing dancing, or at least stomping along to. Wear your boots. When not in Bellingham, Asa spends his summers as a river guide on the Idaho's Middle Fork of The Salmon. As a guide he spends his evenings crafting new songs and mastering old ones as well as playing crowd-pleasing-covers like the tunes of David Allan Coe, The Highwaymen, or Roger Miller.