Uncommon Ground ^ Sam Shaber

Sam Shaber
If you find yourself in a room where outbursts of laughter alternate with sudden mournful silence, you might well be at a Sam Shaber show. WXPN-fm in Philadelphia says Shaber is "Stark, raving, great!" Folkweb.com calls her "a riveting performer,î and Femmusic.com voted her Top Female Performer.

Touring from her native New York City to Seattle and back again and again, Shaber has won awards in the John Lennon, Billboard, and USA Songwriting Competitions for her driving melodies, smart lyrics, and soaring voice. Recently, she also won the ear of Columbia recording artist/producer Shawn Mullins ("Lullabye"), and the two set about making her latest album, eighty numbered streets, released in 2003. The first single, "All of This," about the simplicity and complexity of life in New York City, reached #1 on the Quiznos Subs National In-Store Playlist, ("Well, you never know what you're gonna get," quips Shaber,) and both singles have placed on FMQB and the Hot AC charts.

Daughter of late-screenwriter David Shaber (Warriors, Nighthawks) and artist Alice Shaber, Sam uses her observer's eye in songs like "Bare," about the crowded nature of being on the road, "Simon Says," about the importance of personal responsibility in the wake of September 11, and "Rain and Sunshine," about the loss of a close friend in a car accident on her first tour. Her sharp wit also resonates in songs such as "When the Roses Run Dry" ("A cynic's love song," Shaber explains on stage), "Tempting," about an apparently fabulous one-night stand, and the album's leading track, "Eldorado," a song about family and appreciating what you have: It's kinda silly/How something as big as New York City/Can be invisible when you're staring at your feet, Shaber sings in "a voice that can snap easily from a hoarse wail to a skyscraping falsetto" (Acoustic Guitar). And Shaber is never afraid of taking risks on stage, from an intimate song about the loss of her father called "Solitaire": Now I have your shoes/And every half-written page/And songs from fiddlers' rooves/For daughters who have come of age; to a hilarious anthem in the voice of a lovesick Scottish boy - complete with accent! - called "It's a Crying Shame": And it's a crying shame/That you don't even know my name...But Ah dunny ken how to begin when you're so far/From reality and me...

From dancing to Sgt.Pepper in her parent's living room when she was three to lip-synching to Hungry Like the Wolf in front of the mirror at age 12, Shaber has come a long way. And in her live show, she brings her audience right along with her!

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