"Her music is intimate, personal. You know that by hearing her, you know who she is, and that she knows who you are."
- Josh Shear, Chicopee (Mass.) Herald
Music has always been a part of Emily Shore's life. She grew up listening to her mom teach piano students to play Bach and Chopin, and Emily herself played classical violin for ten years. Emily's mom taught her some triads, and the young basketball player from Amherst, Mass., began figuring out pop, rock and R&B songs on her violin. She even pulled it from under her chin and strummed it like a guitar. It wasn't until a trip to the Newport Folk Festival when she was 18, though, that Emily discovered what she really wanted to do: play an acoustic guitar and write words and music to create her own songs.
After gigging some during school and then graduating from Amherst College in 1999 with a degree in psychology, Emily picked up and moved her operations to Berkeley, Calif., where she planned to start really making a life out of music. After a slow start, things picked up and she was playing regular shows at places like the Hotel Utah in San Francisco and the Rose Street House of Music in Berkeley.
The shows were getting easier to schedule, and the mailing list was getting longer. Emily needed a record, and she needed the right people to help her. That's when she met Los Angeles-based bassist Seth Horan. Seth had performed with the now-famous band Vertical Horizon, and when the two met, they clicked musically and formed an instant friendship. Seth introduced Emily to other artists and engineer David Peters, and with connections new and old, Emily went into David's studio. The result was Emily's debut album, For the Climb. Also appearing on the album are Bay-area guitarist Erika Luckett (Acoustic Guitar Magazine's 2002 Homegrown Award winner for Best Independent Release of the Year), and keyboardist Julie Wolf (Ani Difranco, Laura Love).
Emily has been pleasing audiences on both American coasts with her sweet voice, intricate guitar work and personal lyrics. Her guitar skills are among the best in the singer-songwriter genre, and critics put her in the same league as David Wilcox and Erin McKeown when it comes to her instrument.
In addition to the Utah and Rose Street, Emily has performed at venues such as Amherst College (Amherst, Mass.), Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, Mass.), Open Square (Holyoke, Mass.), Fire & Water (Northampton, Mass.), Sam Bond's Garage (Eugene Ore.), The Hopland Women's Festival (Hopland, Calif.), Red and Black Cafe (Portland, Ore.), Muddy Waters (Arcata, Calif.) and The Brainwash Cafe in San Francisco.
She has opened for or shared the stage with such artists as Dar Williams, Charles Neville, Kris Delmhorst, Pamela Means, Erika Luckett, Erin McKeown, Julie Wolf, Seth Horan, Larry Marciano, David Peters, Gwen Avery, Gooselove, Ray Mason, Laura Chandler, Green, Rachel Garlin, Rose Polenzani, Shelley Doty, Rebecca Riots, Anne Weiss, Jess Klein, Beth Amsel, Megan Toohey, and Deborah Pardes.
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