Music Style Country

Musical Influences The Judds, Shawn Colvin, Cheryl Crow, Alanis Morrisette, Sara McLaughlin, Tina Turner, Bonnie Raiit, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Cowboy Junkies and Tracy Chapman inspire Shelley. “I have a really wide variety of musical influences. My parents brought me up on a buffet of music; from Classical, Jazz, Country, Gospel, Blues, to Rock and Roll!”

Artist History Shelley Laine was born in Houston, Texas. Job change and opportunity moved her family to Dallas when she was less than a year old.The youngest of four children, Shelley spent most of her time keeping up with her older brother.“We used to build tree houses, have water balloon fights, and have leaf-boat races in the rain.” Shelley was an athletic child and recalls the fun she had playing basketball, baseball, football and soccer with the neighborhood kids. “My brother always wanted me to play on his team because I was small and fast!Of course, what he forgot is how easily I got squashed!” Soccer became the sport of choice for Shelley and she played from the time she was in 2nd grade until she was 25 years old. In high school she played on the varsity team all three years. When she was 18 she was selected for the North Texas Women’s Team and went on to try out for the National Women’s Soccer Team. Historically, this was not a time when women were recognized as professional athletes and now is considered to be the early stages of developing a Women’s Olympic Soccer Team. Shelley qualified for the regional team and upon trying out for the National (Olympic) Team, tore her Achilles tendon. Shelley’s focused changed as she entered college. She worked part-time as a teller for Bright Banc, now Bank One, and went to school at night. Shelley relates very well to children and decided to study child psychology. However, she began to promote very rapidly within the bank and decided to focus on opportunities within the company. Shelley’s career launched and she spent 8 years as an Instructor and Instructional Designer/Course Developer at Bank One. “This was a great job for me. I love to work with people and being able to teach them more about their job or ways to improve their performance was highly rewarding.” Also, Shelley says: “That experience, standing and speaking to large groups of people, helped build my confidence and reduce some of that horrible stuff called stage fright that I battle with today.” Shelley says she still gets nervous before a performance and feels it is a necessary ingredient for a great performance. “If you aren’t nervous, then you’ve lost something inside!” Her love for music started in early childhood. Her mother took her and her siblings to church on Sundays and there is where she became musically inspired. “I used to sit in my mom’s lap with my ear against her chest. I’d listen to all the beautiful harmonies she’d sing. From the time I was a child, I was listening to beautiful voices of others and began to explore my own.” As a young adult Shelley sang in choir, with friends, and played in several bands.She began vocal training in the mid 90’s and today continues lessons with her good friend and voice teacher, James Van der Post. In August of ’94 Shelley left Bank One to join a consulting company and eventually left to start her own. After several years, and continuing her consulting career, Shelley decided to return to school part-time. “I was ready to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up!” Wanting to get as many classes out of the way before going to graduate school, she attended a local junior college. In the Fall of 1999 Shelley met Michael Gorton, the Astronomy professor at Richland. Looking for consulting work on the side, she shared with him her portfolio of training and education manuals she wrote for companies around the metroplex. As a side note, she told him her true love was music. “He asked me if I had any (music) he could hear.” “I told him I had a home-brewed cd that I had recorded with one of my best friends.” Shelley gave Michael a copy of the cd and he liked what he heard. He immediately invited his friend David to Dallas to go into a recording studio with Shelley. His intentions were to have a couple of David’s originals from their high school years, and a couple of Shelley’s originals recorded on cd, just for fun. “What we ended up with was something magical!” “I met this guy (David), we played a couple of tunes for each other and knew at that moment we would be connected.” “The rest is history!”Shelley and David took three months to write over 20 songs. Six of those songs are on the Shelley Laine – Skipping Stones cd.

Group Members David Waldon, Dave Spearman, Paul Schmaus, David Bell, Newell Hardy

Instruments electric/acoustic guitars, pedal steel, harmonica, slide guitar, bass and drums

Albums Skipping Stones

Press Reviews Shelley Laine is a new artist that truly brings her own unique lyrical style to country music. Her voice will grab you from the first track to the last - Daniel Collins, Publisher Country Music Today Magazine.

Additional Info This Special Song is not scheduled to be released anywhere but on the Internet.

Location Dallas, TX - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).