Shana Morrison November 18, 2009

Shana Morrison's musical style has been called pop with a side of blues and a side of rock. She has also been known to include other ingredients, like country, R&B, and jazz into the mix. Her material seems to be ever-changing and hard to pin down categorically. What always remains the same is Shana's unique and wide-ranging voice.

Shana Morrison began performing with her group Caledonia in the San Francisco Bay area in 1996. Her debut CD, Caledonia was released on her own label, Belfast Violet Records, in 1998 and picked up by the Monster Music label in 1999. Caledonia received favorable reviews from the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner, as well as airplay on KPFA, KPIG, KPIX, KDVS, KHUM, and KFOG. Tours across the country soon followed.

Vanguard Records signed Shana in 2001, and 7 Wishes was released in 2002. This time, she received favorable reviews from newspapers and magazines across the country, as well as airplay on KMTT in Seattle; KINK in Portland, Ore.; KSGR in Austin, Texas; and KBCO in Denver.

Chronologically listed, some highlights of Shana's career follow: Since 1996, Shana has participated in benefit concerts for Oakland's American Legends Foundation. Paying tribute to and playing for artists such as Brownie McGee and Charles Brown, Shana has shared billing with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker, and Dr. John. She has also played for festival audiences on the main stage both at the Guinness Fleadh in New York in 1997, and in San Francisco in 1999. In 2000 Shana performed at the San Francisco Blues Festival, the Ottawa Blues Festival, and the Edmonton Folk Festival. Recently she has had the type of exposure she deserves, opening shows for Lyle Lovett, Joe Cocker, Michael MacDonald, John Hyatt, Keb 'Mo, and Bob Weir.

Shana's international exposure includes a live broadcast for the BBC's Kelly Show and an appearance at the BRIT Awards in 1996, when her father was presented with a lifetime-achievement award. This has been broadcasted on A&E in America several times since. She also participated in a VH-1 Father's Day special and was featured in People in 1997, Rolling Stone in 1999, and in Interview, as well as on the Oxygen channel's Pure Oxygen, and on The Howard Stern Show in 2002.

Since 2002, the band has been busy with tours across the United States, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and the UK, playing radio shows, clubs, theaters, and festivals, most notably playing the Warfield in San Francisco, the Viper Room in Los Angeles, the House of Blues in Cambridge, the Bottom Line in New York, Meinisfree Open Air in Germany, the Arezzo Wave Pop festival in Italy, the Borderline in London, the Cork Jazz Festival, the Galway Arts Festival, and The Late Late Show in Ireland.

2006 through 2008 saw Shana singing beside Van Morrison again during his U.S. and U.K. tour dates. Twelve years have passed since her beginnings singing duets with Mr. Morrison in his infamous Rhythm and Soul Review, which featured artists such as Jimmy Withersoon, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker. Since her first foray into recording on the Van Morrison releases A Night in San Francisco (1994) and Days Like This (1995), Shana Morrison has grown as a singer, a songwriter, and an artist. Her self-produced 2007 release, the R&B-flavored CD That's Who I Am, is on Belfast Violet Records.

Official Website: http://www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco/jazzclub/artist/show/999