Rob Hears Shannon Lawson For the First Time:

This Kid Can Sing!

By Rob Greenwell

Every once in a while, a perspective artist comes along at the right time, when the stars are aligned, the moon is shining bright, the gods are all smiling down and everything is just perfect and wonderful things happen. In the case of Shannon Lawson, everything must have been perfect, because he was signed to the powerful Nashville record label MCA, the same MCA that houses artists like George Strait, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Chely Wright and Gary Allan. So why would a mega-label take a chance on him? Because this young man can sing!

I had the absolute pleasure to see this Taylorsville, Kentucky native as he performed an acoustic set at the Coyokee Saloon, the karaoke bar at Coyote's. The place was absolutely packed to see this newly signed artist play. (Granted, a lot of them were family) He played seven new songs from an album, "Chase the Sun," that will be released next year. He also threw in a couple of songs from his older band, the Galoots, familiar to some Louisville bar-goers.

Backed by two outstanding musicians, I understood why this guy is highly touted. He has a flair for the dramatic, as he was dressed in a suit that would make Porter Wagoner envious. This get-up was a cross between Elvis and Johnny Cash, all black suit with sequins and a guitar on the pant leg. However, with having said all that, his vocal ability is top notch. His writing on some of the cuts on the new album is likely to allow him to make it as a songwriter as well as an artist. These are not your typical commercial cookie-cutter country music songs, this is more of a rockabilly, bluegrass, folk kind of country, but it's good enough to be commercially accepted. The test of that will come when his single, "Goodbye on a Bad Day," is released to radio in late January.

Seeing Shannon Lawson perform live was an absolute blast. This artist is a star.