Tammie Shannon

 
   
Blues singers are not born, they are made.  They are shaped by their personal and musical influences and forged by their life’s experiences.  Tammie Shannon is a Blues singer.
Tammie grew up in northeast Arkansas, just a short drive from Memphis.  For as long as she can remember, music had always been the centerpiece of her life.  Every Saturday night, her family’s home was the gathering spot for an eclectic group of musicians.  From Classical to Blues, Country to R&B, this musical stew had a profound effect on a shy five-year old Tammie Shannon.   She would sit entranced all night while her neighbors would play and sing.   
Abused as a child, Tammie found refuge in music.  She spent her early years singing in her local church.  She joined a local band that toured as the opener for Percy Sledge, always accompanied by her mother.  After her mom passed away, Shannon was so stricken with grief, she gave up singing.  After marriage marred by deceit and further abuse left Tammie broken and alone to raise her three daughters.  Scarred but undaunted, Shannon focused on motherhood and building a successful business.
In 2013, Shannon was in an accident that required surgery.  The intubation process damaged a vocal cord and left it paralyzed.  It took a year to regain full use of her voice.  The near loss of her vocal gifts and a life changing conversation with her daughter put music back at the center of her life. 
“As my daughter, Coco, was leaving for college, she told me it was time for me to chase my dreams.”, recalled Tammie. “I realized that I couldn’t tell my girls to live their dreams if I wouldn’t heed my own advice.”
So, Tammie has come full circle with music at the center of her world.  She has teamed with Grammy-nominated producer Kent Wells (with a little help from Blues legend Keb Mo) to make her first Blues album.  Why the Blues?
“No genre of music is more honest than the Blues,” remarks Shannon, “and that is what has always attracted me to it.  Life, put to music, is the Blues.” 
Tammie Shannon didn’t just record a Blues album, she’s lived it.  All of Me tells us her life’s story, with each song chronicling a piece of her journey through abuse, betrayal and loss to empowerment and victory over personal hardship.  All of Me is Blues.