Susan's Music Bio

Susan Shore is a New Jersey expatriate (via New England and Iowa) now living in the Arkansas Ozarks. Her father was a professional musician who played with Klezmer musicians and later toured with Clyde McCoy’s big band in the 'thirties and early ‘forties. Susan joined the family business when she took up the guitar and songwriting at thirteen. Susan's first performance ever, at age 15, was at North Bergen, NJ's "Music Feast", held at a football stadium in front of an audience of stoned hippies and their parents. Eventually Susan left northern New Jersey's field of eternally burning tires for New England, where she wrote the score for the Boston Shakespeare Company’s

Appearances  (a partial list)

RADIO
Mountain Stage, West Virginia Public Radio; River City Folk, Omaha, NE; Homefront, Louisville, KY; Tent Show Radio, Bayfield, WI; Live From Studio One, Cedar Falls, IA; Ozarks At Large, Fayetteville, AR; The Flea Market, Chicago, IL; American Folk Sampler Live, Pittsburgh, PA
MUSIC FESTIVALS
Kerrville Folk Festival; Woody Guthrie Music Festival; Ozark Folk Festival; Summerfolk, Milwaukee, WI; Winnipeg Folk Festival; Owen Sound Summerfolk Festival; Walnut Valley Festival; Mariposa Folk Festival
OPENERS
Dan Hicks and His Acoustic Warriors; Michael Johnson; Maria Muldaur; The Bad Livers; Christine Lavin; Hart Rouge;
Mollie O'Brien; Guy Davis; Blue House; Ricky Skaggs; Townes Van Zandt; Kathy Mattea; Taj Mahal; Norman Blake; Jesse Winchester; Tom Paxton; Harry Dean Stanton with The Call
CLUBS, COFFEEHOUSES, CONCERT SERIES
The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI; The Bluebird Cafe', Nashville, TN; Station Inn, Nashville, TN; Caffe' Lena, Saratoga
Springs, NY; Uncle Calvin's, Dallas, TX; The Tin Angel, Philadelphia, PA; Anderson Fair, Houston, TX; Westside Folk, Lawrence, KS; Concerts at the Crossing, Titusville, NJ; Minstrel Coffeehouse, Morristown, NJ; Coffeehouse
Extempore', Minneapolis, MN; The Down Home, Johnson City, TN; Godfrey Daniels, Bethlehem, PA; The No Exit
Cafe', Chicago, IL; Arts Center, Carrboro, NC; Tulsa Folk Music Society, Tulsa, OK; Appalshop, Whitesburg, KY;
John Henry's Hammer, Worcester, MA; The Artichoke, Wichita, KS; The Iron Horse, El Dorado, KS; Focal Point, St.
Louis, MO; Two Way Street Coffeehouse, Downer's Grove, IL; Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua, Bayfield, WI;
Cafe' Carpe, Ft. Atkinson, WI; Mississippi Nights, St. Louis, MO; FitzGerald's, Berwyn, IL; New Folk Collective, St.
Paul, MN; Acoustic Sounds Cafe', Little Rock, AR



Press

Not only one of Iowa's best musicians, but a singer/songwriter whose combination of formidable natural
talent and meticulous, diligent dedication to her art places her among the very best in her field
anywhere... A dynamic, passionate voice of enviable color, facility and accuracy..."Book of Days" is a
terrific achievement...ranks among the best records ever to come out of Iowa.
Jim Musser - Icon


Her soaring voice and plain-spoken songs mark Shore as a folkie in the classic sense. Having honed her
art in Cambridge, Mass., the seat of East Coast acoustic music, Shore brings to bear a mixture of
introspection and narrative. Several of the songs on "Book of Days" will flat break your heart. Townes
Van Zandt could write some tunes filled with tragic characters, but Shore, on her own "Safe Among the
Family" and "Joseph's Girls" could make mascara run on a rock. Shore also crafts tunes that grip.
Jim Beal, Jr. - San Antonio Express-News


A gifted songwriter.
Michael Parrish - Dirty Linen


Shore's charming stage presence, smoothly alluring voice and kick back attitude was a treat.
River Cities' Reader


Shore's original pieces are exquisite--the work of a songwriter with rare depth and wisdom who can
successfully relate her own Midwestern experiences to a wide, diverse audience.
Shayla Thiel - The Daily Iowan


© 2013



1977 production of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" and performed with the company during the play's run. Later that year she spent several months in Ireland, and took to arranging Irish songs to suit her voice and intricate guitar style. Jittery but ever-hopeful, she played her handful of ballads at open mics in and around Cambridge after her return to the States. She hoped someday to shed her terror of performing and learn to speak coherently onstage. She considered returning to New Jersey to perform in football stadiums, but thought better of it.


After a five-year stint working for Rounder Records, Susan joined forces with singer/songwriter Nathan Bell and
moved to Iowa, where they began to tour as Bell and Shore. She learned to play rhythm guitar and mandolin and to sing harmony with Nathan's gritty vocals. Along the way, Susan lost her stage fright. She also learned to speak coherently in front of many people. The duo’s musical influences were all over the map; their trademark high-octane performances took them from intimate coffeehouses to major music festivals, radio and television. They released Little Movies on the Flying Fish label in 1987 and L-Ranko Motel on ROM Records in 1989 to rave reviews. In 1990, after seven years of touring, they called it quits and went their separate ways.


In 1990, Susan founded the performance series "Wild Women", playing to packed houses in the Midwest for over four years. She continued to perform as a solo artist, and took up the pen again. She began writing songs in earnest, and released her first solo album, Old 218, in 1995. Two years later, Book of Days was released on the Waterbug label to critical acclaim.

Susan moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1999. She continues to perform nationally, having added mainstage
performances at The Kerrville Folk Festival, The Woody Guthrie Folk Music Festival, and on syndicated radio shows
such as River City Folk on National Public Radio. She performed for several years as mandolinist/harmony singer with Fayetteville singer/songwriter Effron White, and with the band Likely Stories. Since 2010,  Susan and formidable singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Michael Cockram have been performing as Shore and Cockram.
© 2013