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 Raised
in the foothills of the Ozark mountains, Shelley King grew
up singing gospel music in a little one room church and listening
to her uncles play Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and CSN&Y on
their acoustic guitars. The hills of Arkansas offered little
opportunity for a budding artist so Shelley packed up her
guitar and a few songs and moved to the big city of Houston
to start her first band. She soon found that the Houston urban
scene of the early 90s was anything but rootsy. The desire
to remain true to her roots drove Shelley to move her base
of inspiration to the rolling hills of central Texas and the
nurturing music scene of Austin. A veteran of the Texas music
scene with nearly two decades of professional music experience
she now travels all over the US, Canada and Europe and has
plans to tour Australia, and Japan in the near future. She
has made live appearances on radio and television all over
the world including recording a "live concert" for
XM Satellite Radio and the internationally syndicated radio
program "Woodsongs".
Shelley King has been chosen to be the 2008 Official State
of Texas Musician, following in the footsteps of Johnny Gimble,
Ray Benson, Billy Joe Shaver, and Dale Watson. She has the
unique honor of being not only the youngest but also the first
woman to be the Official State Musician! In 1996, Shelley
released her self titled EP which later became the base tracks
for her 1998 debut CD "Call of My Heart". Austin
audiences fell in love with Shelley and her rockin' country
blues sound. Other artists started taking note of King's great
songs and soon covers started popping up on recordings all
over the world. She won "Song of the Year" in the
AMA's for Toni Price's version of "Call of My Heart".
Toni loved the song so much that she opened her 2001 performance
on Austin City Limits with it. The Austin Music Awards bestowed
the Shelley King Band with the "Roots Rock Band of the
Year" award in 2005. Other acts to take that same honor
include James McMurtry, Reckless Kelly, and Joe Ely. King
has now since released two more full length CDs. "The
Highway", (Lemonade 2002)was recorded at Fame Studios
in Muscle Shoals, AL where many greats have recorded including
Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, The Allman Brothers. Her
most recent CD, "Rockin' the Dancehall" (Lemonade
2004) was recorded live at Texas' oldest dancehall, Gruene
Hall. Shelley and her band have performed at festivals all
over the US, Canada & Europe. Some of those have included
SXSW in Austin, NXNE in Toronto, Old Settler's Music Fest
in Austin, New York State Rhythm & Blues Festival in Syracuse,
Spiediefest in Binghamton, NY, International Fest in Calais,
ME, Riverfest in Little Rock, AR, Dogwood Festival in Atlanta,
Big Sur Jade Festival, Big Sur, CA, Wonderjam in Amsterdam
and many more. Currently Shelley King is working on a new
CD to be released later this year.
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