Blessed with guitar-slinger chops, a throaty, expressive
voice and a confidant, sassy stage presence, blues-rock wunderkind
Shannon Curfman will inevitably draw comparisons to R&B veterans
like Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi. But when you consider
that Shannon's still just 15 years old, there's really no
comparison that does her justice.
www.shannoncurfman.com
Curfman - who recently relocated with her family to Minneapolis
from her Fargo, N.D. hometown - has been playing since she
was 10, and singing even longer. After jamming with Jeff Healey
at the Fargo Blues Festival, Curfman decided to form a band.
Fellow Fargo teen blues sensation Jonny Lang befriended her,
and helped her hook up with manager Jake Walesch. In 1998,
Curfman released her first album -- produced by Tom Tucker,
from Prince's Paisley Park -- Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions,
on Pop Sense, the indie label owned by Walesch.
By the following year, Curfman jumped to the big time, when
legendary record label executive Clive Davis signed her to
Arista Records after catching one of her live performances.
With a few changes - four new songs, re-recorded vocals --
her debut album was re-released by Arista in September 1999,
backed by a nationwide tour. The rest, as they say, is history.
Although the Raitt/Tedeschi references are understandable,
Curfman's influences are farther ranging. "My heroes are people
like Stevie Wonder, Santana, Prince, Me'Shell Ndegeocello,
Rory Block, Robert Johnson, Dwight Yoakam, John Prine, Chaka
Khan - I could go on," Shannon says in her bio. "My goal is
to be like Sheryl Crow, who is such a big part of her music
- she writes, sings, plays a lot of the instruments, produces.
It's cool going in the studio and just observing, seeing what's
happening, but I'm definitely a hands-on person. I like doing
stuff myself."
StarPolish Editorial Director Jim Willcox recently caught
up with Curfman and talked to her about her burgeoning career,
playing with her heroes, and maintaining a balance in her
life. "Shannon is surprisingly astute about her career and
her decision to be in the music business, as well as to play
music - a distinction even many older artists don't understand,"
Willcox says. "It will be interesting to see the choices she
makes as she gets older and matures."
Curfman recently moved from Arista to J Records, the new label
jointly formed by Clive Davis and BMG Entertainment.
Playing on John Mayall's Album
STARPOLISH: How did your appearance on the new John Mayall
tribute album come to pass? What was it like working with such a
legendary performer?
CURFMAN: John emailed me from
my website -- he did it on his own…I'm not quite sure how he first
heard about me. But I emailed him back, and he invited me to a show
here, and I went to the show and he was amazing. Jonny [Lang] was
there, too, and he invited us both to participate on the record.
I did my part in Chicago, and it was amazing working with him, and
working with David Z, the producer, in a studio because it's cool
to see other people and how they work and how they get stuff done.
STARPOLISH: Was it different from how you do things?
CURFMAN: Not really, it was
pretty similar, actually, kind of one thing after another, kind
of getting it done mentality, I guess. But at the same time, they
never overlook anything. And they really are perfectionists. It
was really cool working with them.
STARPOLISH: Is this a tribute album?
CURFMAN: No, not really. It's
just him…basically like Carlos [Santana] did with Supernatural.
It kind of sounds like a compilation album, or something at first,
but then you listen to it and it all fits together. But the spotlight
is still on John.
STARPOLISH: He teams with various artists on each of the
tracks?
CURFMAN: Yes.
STARPOLISH: You've had the opportunity to play with some
amazing, legendary performers. Do you ever get used to it, and does
it ever make you nervous having to play with or in front of people
you admire?
CURFMAN: You get more comfortable
with it, especially if you're comfortable with the person. That
person, if he's a friend of yours…. I guess if I had to play in
front of Stevie Wonder, that would kind of choke me up. I kind of
choked up in front of Donnie Osmond…
STARPOLISH: Really? Donnie Osmond?
CURFMAN: I couldn't go on stage…they
finally pushed me up, and there I was. It was fine once I got up
there, but it spooked me a little at first. A lot of my big inspirations
come to our shows and it's really comfortable, actually. They act
like anyone else, and so far, no one's been intimidating -- they're
happy to be there. There's a reason they're going out - to hang
out and have fun.
STARPOLISH: Maybe it helps that a lot of these people
have gone through a similar thing?
CURFMAN: It helps when people
remember where they came from, and help out other artists that are
just starting out. I think that does really help…newer artists that
are just breaking in when they mention them in interviews. It does
really help, and it's inspiring when someone talks about you that
you really look up to.
STARPOLISH: One of the interesting things, particularly
with blues artists, is that there's often an opportunity for the
younger artists to help expose older blues artists who aren't that
popular to a more mainstream audience.
CURFMAN: It does help, because
maybe they are more traditional, more of what could be classified
as blues, and are the originators of it. At the same time, Jonny
and I are a little more mainstream than traditional, and just being
younger will sometimes get different kinds of publicity, so it's
cool to plug people you really dig and who people may not know a
lot about. But there are a lot of people that I really dig that
are really well known, like Albert Collins and Buddy Guy. But there
are other artists that I really love that I just never understood
why people haven't grasped them. Definitely, going and mentioning
them really helps. A lot of people will ask, "What are your favorite
albums of all time, or "I'm trying to play guitar, what should I
listen to, what CDs should I learn from?" And that gives me a good
opportunity to slip names in there that they may not hear from a
lot of other people.
