Loud Guitars Big Suspicions was her debut album and loud guitars continued this past Sunday night at Birdy’s Bar & Grill in Indianapolis. Shannon Curfman now touring in support of her third full length release “What You’re Getting Into” was nothing less than fabulous during her performance! Accompanied by brothers Wade Thompson on bass and Paul Thompson on drums with Justin Kesterson on guitar, the band played with an intensity and collective chemistry rivaling the best in the industry. Every song was a stirring dose of rock-n-roll powered by Shannon’s blues influenced vocals and the talented guitar play traded between Shannon and Justin.
For Shannon, her career as a nationally known singer, song writer, and guitarist began at age 14 but her start in music was much earlier. She began singing at age 7 and learned guitar so she wasn’t reliant on others to make music. She continued to grow as a singer and guitarist and performed her first big show at age 12 at an outdoor festival. By age 14 she had national attention which led to many opportunities over the last ten years including performances on Jay Leno, David Letterman, as well as many notable performances with rock-n-roll and blues greats such as Indiana’s own John Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, B.B. King, and John Lee Hooker. Her early days of learning blues came from a friendship with Jonny Lang that started in Fargo, ND and continues today.
Shannon’s performance at Birdy’s was a vocal and guitar charged session of new songs like Free your mind, All I have, and the title track, What you’re getting into, along with previous material such as Fast Lane Addiction, Never enough, and Real bad feeling. The band also performed powerful covers like Mississippi Queen, Mama said, and a less known Queen song called Dragon Attack. She ended the night on the high energy song “Oh Well” by Fleetwood Mac, an exciting combination of fiery vocals and screaming guitars which left the audience in awe of Shannon’s stage presence and ability! Perhaps the most telling of covers came with Shannon’s rendition of “The Weight” by Levon Helm’s group The Band. Shannon had first covered this on her debut release only this night the song gave way to a more mature, accomplished voice, and the bands backing vocal was spot on making this truly enjoyable. My personal favorite of the night was a cover of an old Clapton tune “The Core” which she also performed the next morning on The Bob and Tom Show. The studio version of this song from her new release has her teamed up with long time friend Joe Bonamassa, as they had wanted to record together for a while. One day she called up Joe stating she was in the studio and asked if he would come record this song, he immediately loved it as Clapton was his childhood guitar hero and remains an influence. Justin Kesterson, Shannon’s guitarist, accompanies her during the live shows and both make it an even better rendition than the original which had Marcy Levy standing in with Clapton.
I had a chance to speak with Shannon before she went on stage and we spoke of her life since her career began and how it was different now. Shannon’s priorities were still very much in music, however her appreciation of being a mother and the time with her daughter stood out above all. Shannon is grateful in being able to perform as an artist and the freedom it gives her for family life. After speaking with Shannon and enjoying the band perform with such articulate execution it was obvious, Shannon was doing exactly what she wanted and her confidence came from knowing herself, as well as her priorities. Her new CD is a must have and her live show a must do! What You’re Getting Into is blues rock at its finest when you see her on stage!
Photos by: Raymon Guajardo
http://tinyurl.com/Facebookcurfman
Shannon Curfman – vocals, guitar
Justin Kesterson – vocals, guitar
Wade Thompson – vocals – bass
Paul Thompson – vocals, drums
~ Mark
