Music is a birthright
Writing songs is a way of participating in a conversation with myself and others about what my little life and the world around me might hold in terms of meaning. Music is my first language and at its best is the most vital way to experience a wide range of specific emotional landscapes. Music and writing has been a healing force in my life and a way of moving through and making sense of my own suffering.It was through top 40 radio, vinyl record shops, and live punk and folk shows that I learned to embody emotions that I had no way of knowing or generating. At its heart, my art continues to be for and about survival and transformation.
Ben Shannon’s most recent single, I MISS YOU I LOVE YOU, 5/5/2021, is a meditation on his experience of the conditioning he received by coming of age in a nation and culture steeped in white supremacist ideology.
Born in Nashville Tennessee, the second child of a nurse and a scientist, Shannon grew up in Pittsburgh as a writer, a skateboarder, and a student of contemporary poetry. Shannon’s love of song and poetry inspired a combination of the two forms in BurghSong, a lyric focused songwriter centered listening room series with a four year run.
Shannon was the winner of the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriter Showcase 2015; and finalist in the 2017 Kerrville Folk Festival New Song Showcase on the backs of two independent full album releases--FAREWELL MOUNTAIN (2016) and MOVE ON (2013). His most recent release TRIGGER FINGER, was featured on local radio station WYEP however, the venues for the release concert closed its doors permanently.
Ben is currently preparing for a modest schedule of shows in the hopefully post covid 2022.
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Photographer: Dave Hidek