Shannon Curfman Or I Apparently Violated My 50 Foot Restraining Order

Saw Shannon Curfman on Wednesday, September 12. Only the second time I saw her, but there are a lot of reasons, not all mine for that.

Shannon Curfman released her first album at the end of 1999. She was 14 when she was signed to Arista. She wouldn’t call herself a prodigy, but what do you call a 14 year old whose voice is almost as powerful as Ann Wilson and plays guitar like Albert Collins. When she released her first album, “Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions”, people thought that she was a fake, that she was some older blues singer and not this 14-year-old kid. Only, when she got on stage, in her bedazzled shirt, wide-cuff torn jeans and her doc martens with a 2 inch lift, picked up her guitar and preceded to rip chords like a 60 year old black man from Chicago. Then she would sing in this powerful deep voice and finish with a thank you that made you think she just took a whiff of helium. It cracked me up. The first time I saw her, it was August 2000 at the South Street Seaport. It was a free outdoors concert. I had heard about her early in the year, got the CD and was blown away. I’m a good-sized blues fan, and I was impressed by her CD, but I couldn’t believe she was just 14. I figured it was a Milli Vanilli moment. My friend Joe, who liked her for her music and then for all the wrong reasons, read that she was doing the free summer concert at the Seaport. Free, being the right price for us at the time, but also we liked her music. So when we got there, there was actually a nice sized crowd building for her. I was surprised but kinda glad we weren’t going to be the only ones. There were actually quite a number of younger adults there and a small number of disturbing older single men. When you get a young girl that’s fairly attractive, you’re going to attract a certain element. (Unfortunately, even I feel like I’m part of that when I see a young girl nowadays.) While waiting for her, we saw a young girl with a big backpack making her way to the front and then went backstage. She then appeared on stage 15 minutes later in the above mention clothes and preceded to just blow me away. It’s hard to describe how good she is unless you saw her, she shouldn’t have been that good at that age. Hell, Bonnie Raitt wasn’t good until she was 22. When you hear Shannon’s first CD, it really is hard to believe she is playing lead guitar and that she co-wrote most of the original songs on that CD.

So Shannon Curfman was appearing here and there on talk shows. She was part of the mini new blues revival featuring the upstart kids, including Jonny Lang, 16, (Shannon’s friend who helped her get noticed and helped her with her first album, his had just come out a few months earlier), and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, 22, (a brilliant guitarist, but disturbingly, I just found out he was dating and engaged to Shannon in 2000, yes, he was 22 and she was 15. Apparently the legal age in Louisiana, where he’s from or North Dakota, where she’s from, is 15). She was more of a novelty to the non-blues fan, 15-year-old prodigy. So when it came time to make another album, she kinda just disappeared. From what I gathered, it seems like it was a combination of a few things. First, she was engaged to Shepherd, which basically had a 15-year-old girl following a 22-year-old man around. Her name would pop up at blues festival across the country, but usually where he was also. Second, Clive Davis kinda wanted her to try playing something else other than blues, try and broaden her appeal. Shannon really didn’t want that, so one thing led to another and she never made another album until her contract with Arista expired and she created her own label, Purdy Records, and put out an EP in 2006 and then a full album in 2007.

When I remembered to check if she was touring, she would always be at different blues festivals or here and there, but almost always only in the Midwest or South. She lives in Minneapolis now and she kinda stuck to that area. She did come to NY last year, but I found out too late. This year, I found out she was coming here again in support of the new album and was deciding whether to go or not because it was in the middle of the week and I was working. I finally decided to just go, taking the next day off to be sure. She was playing at the Cutting Room, Chris Noth’s bar. (In the bar area, there are copies of classic paintings and the a huge photograph of Chris Noth. Interpret on your own.) I’m so damn happy I did, seeing her again was amazing. How could she not be better, 7 years after I first saw her? She played a mixture of songs from her first CD and the new CD and did a killer cover of “Mississippi Queen”. It was just her on lead guitar, a rhythm guitarist, bass and drums. When I first saw her, she had keyboards but not this time. I was able to take 3 videos of her at the concert, will post the links later as soon asI upload them to Youtube.

I felt she got a raw deal as far as the audience, there were only about 12 people there. It’s a small venue, but it could hold about 50 people or so. Her show was supposed to be a week earlier and it got cancelled at the last moment, so the rescheduling hurt the amount of people that would have shown up. Someone there told me she sold out last year. Just another side note, I ordered her new CD about a week or so earlier and had to shoot an email about whether I could get it signed or not. I mentioned I was going to be at this show. When she finished her show, she was signing at the merch table. She asked if I wanted to buy any of the CDs, I said I just got them and she asked if I was the guy that emailed that I was going to be there, and I said yes. So apparently she’s sending out her stuff in the road so she can personalize it if you buy from her directly. It was really nice of her and she was a total sweetheart.

And finally, yes, I am old enough to be her father, but I love her anyway.

Shannon around 15. She freakin' bedazzled her guitar for God's sake. In 2000, she used about 4 different guitars at the show I saw her at. She still plays all the guitars she had from this time, although at the show Wednesday, she only played one guitar all night.


Shannon now, just as bad ass and constipated looking. I think all blues artists are constipated, they always look like they have to go really bad and can't. Funny aside, someone said John Mayer makes funny faces when he plays guitar, and I said that's because he has fully embraced his blues side finally. It's the law, blues guitarists have to make ridiculous faces during solos.


Shannon and I. She was kind enough to take a picture with me rather than run away from the evil facial hair. Yes, that is alternate universe Chaw as indicated by the evil goatee. But I can be swayed by logic or the chance to take command. (God, I'm such an idiot.)