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! Shelley is a 2008 Kerrville New Folk Finalist and will perform at the Kerrville Folk Festival at high noon on Sunday May 25 at this years festival.
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.
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 on television all over the world including recording a "live concert" for XM Satellite Radio and the internationally syndicated radio program "Woodsongs".
