Who She Be?
Shannon Gunn (who used to be Shannon Campbell) is a completely self-taught singer/songwriter of
the folk persuasion located in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She's performed in South Carolina,
North Carolina, Maryland, Washington DC and Pennsylvania in coffee shops, bookstores, bars, clubs,
festivals and other various venues, including as part of Ladyfest,
the Tori Amos Tribute, and several benefits and events for Sun and the Moon Productions, based
in Fayetteville, NC.
Although she has a distinct acoustic playing style, it's her vocals that stand out, conveying powerful
emotion with every word she sings. Her combination of an unapologetic stage presence that borders on comedy hour
and a personal, yet universal writing style captivates audiences each time she plays. That, and an unbelievable tolerance
for Jagermeister.
Shannon started out playing solo, opening for various local bands and honing her writing skills as a charter member of the Cape Fear
Songwriter's Guild. She then co-founded Folk You Harder with keyboardist and vocalist Kerstin Hanson. The
duo toured extensively throughout the state and released a live album in early 2001, which sold well through live shows
and CD Baby before being discontinued. Two of the three songs that won
the 2001 Cape Fear Folk Festival Songwriting Contest for Folk You Harder -- "Oblivion" and "Josephine" -- were written by Shannon.
After the disbanding of FYH, Shannon teamed up with folk/blues guitarist and vocalist Nathan Davis on a
supposedly temporary basis. Audiences enjoyed their chemistry on stage, and the two recorded several songs together in Grant Walker's studio
in Southern Pines, NC in the winter of 2001. While the songs were never officially released, the demo versions somehow wound up in the hands
of quite a few people.
In 2002, Shannon and Nathan decided to move to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to further their musical careers. Shannon left for the frozen hinterlands
of the north in January, but Nathan eventually decided to stay in North Carolina and so she struck out her own. She enjoyed an amount of success, but wound
up waiting more tables than playing songs and decided, at the end of 2002, it was time to come home.
Home turned out to be South Carolina for the next couple of years, where she fell into the habit of working a normal job with normal hours
and a serious lack of liquor. After living in sin for a while, she decided it was time to come home, and is now back in Fayetteville, NC
still working a normal job, but with not so normal hours. She's still writing, but not performing so much these days.
Things can change though.
Contact Information
Email: shannon@shannoncampbell.info
AIM: petrockstars2
YIM: folkyouharder
MSN: shannon@shannoncampbell.info
Navigate Home Biography Lyrics/MP3s Notables The crowning jewel of my internet career might be the 2003 Blogathon, which I participated in with Scott Andrew LePera. Cowriting and recording two original songs as Pet Rock Star^s netted $1200 in donations for the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation. Joi Ito asked me to write a song for Ben & Mena Trott (of Moveable Type fame) for their birthdays in September 2003. I gladly accepted, and the result is "Your Own Dot Org," a somehow silly and somewhat serious song about their lives, taken mostly from their weblog archives. Request my music almost any time you'd like at Whole Wheat Radio. WWR is run by Jim Kloss and Esther Golton from a 12x12 cabin in Talketna, Alaska, and they're two of my most favoritest people in the whole world. |