On The Verge

Shannon Whitworth

Brevard, N.C.
Inspirational Neighbors
www.shannonwhitworth.net

“Man, there are some stories here!” Shannon Whitworth exclaims from her home in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. “I grew up in the South and am inspired by Southern things around me. Characters and my neighbors that stop by, like the hog farmers, find their way into pieces of my songs—human relationships and stories trigger things.” Originally a member of the bluegrass band The Biscuit Burners, Whitworth was afraid of performing at first. “One day, you realize it’s not about you—it’s about this sound going through you and the people you’re playing with,” she says. “It feels so good to sing, you just get over it.” The self-described “mutt who grew up all over, from South Carolina to Virginia,” says that the beauty of the landscape surrounding her as well as John Prine, country, folk, jazz and Portuguese music have helped shape her sound. Whitworth put out her first solo release in 2007 ( No Expectations ), followed it with what she calls “a step, not an evolution,” 2010’s Water Bound, and is now working on a new record. She views her craft as “painting with a lot of instruments and colors—each one lends itself to a different character. It’s like a big goulash, just like where I grew up and my influences—a Brunswick stew!”