Tag: “Shawn Mullins”

Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival sets 2012 line-up

 in Reviews

Tin Pan South, the pre-emiment songwriters festival, has just released its line-up for the 2012 event scheduled for March 27-31. It’s a wide-ranging collection of talent, spead over ten venues. Attendees can pay cover at the door or buy a weeklong pass that offers preferred access.
Many of this year’s performers are songwriters who have also had successful recording careers, including Ray Wylie Hubbard, Walter Egan, T. Graham Brown, Lari White, Michael Johnson, Peter Yarrow, Sam Bush, Mark Hudson, Felix Cavaliere, Radney Foster, Darrell Scott, Buddy Miller, Lee Roy Parnell, John Oates, Jim Lauderdale, Dickey Lee, Buzz Cason, Shawn Mullins, Jim Peterik, Al Anderson, Shawn Camp and the Wrights.
You’ll find details on the schedule and tickets at the Tin Pan South site. For coverage of past Tin Pan South events, go here.

(Follow Sun209and the festival at sun209com on Twitter.)

Bangles, Crowell, Ray headline 30A Songwriters Festival

 in Songwriters

The Bangles, Rodney Crowell and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls are among the headliners at next week’s 30A Songwriters Festival in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

While some songwriters festivals feature writers who have composed for others, the 30A festival features a wide range of performers with recording careers, who also happen to write their own material.

Artists scheduled to appear at the festival Jan. 13-15 include Matthew Sweet, Mary Gauthier, Tania Elizabeth, Shawn Mullins, Jeffrey Steele, Miles Zuniga of Fastball, Joan Osborne,  Jim Lauderdale, Steve Forbert, Chely Wright, the Sam Bush Band,  David Ryan Harris, Corey Smith, Marti Jones and Don Dixon, Tommy Talton, Randall Bramblett, Susan Cowsill, Teddy Gentry, Lenny LeBlanc, Joseph Arthur, Lori McKenna, Eric Brace and Peter Cooper, Chuck Cannon, Brigitte DeMeyer, Jeff Black, David Olney, Over the Rhine, Tommy Womack, Emily Lynch, Larkin Poe and Suzi Ragsdale.

Schedule details and ticket information can be found here.

Shawn Mullins lights up Portland

 in Reviews

By Lou Brancaccio

— Folk rock singer Shawn Mullins played to a sold out crowd Saturday night at Portland’s historic Aladdin Theater on Milwaukie Avenue. He then headed to Seattle for what he thought would be the end of his West Coast tour swing.

Not so fast.

Mullins opted to come back to Portland on Monday night to the cheers of those who couldn’t get into the Saturday show. We opted to attend the Monday performance to see what the buzz was about. And it sure was worth it.

The Aladdin Theater is perfect for this down-to-earth singer. It’s also one of the reasons why Couv residents love to travel across the river to the den of diversions. This joint began as a vaudeville house in the late 20s and played host to the likes of guys likes Jack Benny. Today the 620-capacity venue hosts an eclectic array of musicians.

Mullins lit up the crowd early with one of his more famous songs, “I just want to light you up.” And throughout the performance his soulful voice made the experience a keeper.

Mullins — who is a storyteller by trade — also entertained the crowd with stories from his life. Our favorite? He was playing in an L.A. Chinese restaurant in the ’90s and struck up a conversation with a woman who said she was getting tired of the boy bands and wished she could hear him on the radio. He said he told her he didn’t think that was in the cards. But not long afterward, he made it on the radio.

Mullins also mentioned to the crowd that he’s not sure he’d like to be any bigger than he is now. He likes his life and amount of fame just about like it is.

Mullins closed with a stirring rendition of “House of the Rising Sun.” This guy is a southern boy but appears to feel right at home in the Pacific Northwest.

(Lou Brancaccio is the editor of the Columbian. This article originally appeared in the Columbian and is republished with permission.)