Shannon Brown

By Ryan Gueningsman

Everything’s coming up roses for country singer Shannon Brown these days.

So much so that when she called for a pre-Winstock interview from her Nashville home, she was taking a break from planting flowers in her garden.

“It’s that time of the year. I went and got a bunch of plants today – I love to garden,” she said. “Actually, I’m a little bit behind schedule, so every window of opportunity I get, I try to take.”

Windows of opportunity have been opening for Brown not only in her garden, but in her music career, as well.

She recently released her first CD for Warner Brothers Records called “Corn Fed,” and had a hit song by the same name.

Brown is originally from Spirit Lake, Iowa, which is home to the renowned vacation destination Lake Okoboji.

“My parents had a restaurant and a few different night clubs in the lakes area, so I was surrounded by music in that respect,” she said. “My father also played in a band for, like 25 years – 20 of which were before I was born – but, because he was such a music guy, it translated into our homelife.”

Brown sang a lot throughout her childhood, performing in pageants, choruses, and show choirs, but never really dreamed of becoming a “big star.”

Thanks to encouragement from her father, Brown began singing at her parents club to get the crowd going, but before long, people were returning to the club just to hear her sing.

Her mother and father began helping Brown launch a career. For about six years, her father ran sound and her mother handled the lights.

“I’d been playing on the road for a number of years by the time I moved to Nashville. We played between 160 to 180 shows a year throughout the midwest,” Brown said. “I just knew that when I made the decision to just go for it, and that this was going to be my career . . . I just knew fate would bring me to Nashville, and that would be a road I would have to travel to make it.”

She moved to Music City in 1994, and began doing studio work, citing the differences between singing live and singing in the studio. She wanted to become a better studio musician and, before long, she was singing demos.

“I needed to perfect my skills in both,” she said. “I had really spent a lot of time honing my live thing, but I hadn’t really been in the studio.”

At that time, Nashville became her “home away from home.”

For two years, Brown would work in Nashville for two weeks, then make the 15-hour drive back to Iowa and perform shows for three weeks, and then head back to Nashville and start all over. As she had more success, she was able to fly back to Iowa, instead of making the 15-hour car trips.

“Now, I’ve been here 12 years, and it’s hard to believe I’ve been here that long,” she said. “It’s a great place to live. I like being here.”

Being in Nashville full-time led to her first record deal in 1997, with Arista Records. For several years, she toured and worked on her music, but eventually, she got caught up in a record label merger.

She found herself releasing an album and a single, “Baby I Lied,” for BNA Records, before leaving the company in 2001.

“It created a stepping stone for me to be where I am right now,” she said. “All of it was a blessing and nothing I would ever trade.”

“It just wasn’t the perfect situation,” she continued. “I just had different ideas for myself, and they had different ideas for me, and they weren’t one in the same. It was definitely a major stumbling block . . . it was necessary, but I don’t know that I was totally prepared for it, so it took me a little while to pick myself up and brush myself off.”

She spent the next two years focusing, writing, and trying to figure out her life and what she wanted to do.

“I got back out on the road and started playing music that I loved and songs I had written,” she said. “I found the love of music again and the love of what I do and why I got in the business to begin with.”

In 2004, she found herself sitting next to her husband, Shaun Silva, at the Country Music Television (CMT) Flameworthy Awards. Silva was nominated for several videos he had directed for Kenny Chesney. The couple was excited to be there, but were sitting in the wrong seats. Sitting next to them, and also in the wrong seats, was the hot new duo Big and Rich – John Rich and Big Kenny.

Brown struck up conversation with her former BNA labelmate Rich, and the two began giving each other career updates.

“Within a few weeks, we were cutting music, and a couple months later, we had a record deal,” Brown said. “He helped me get a record deal at Warner Brothers.”

Rich agreed to produce her album, and also co-wrote a number of songs for her first Warner Brothers album, “Corn Fed.”

“We made this album that I am so proud of, and we just had a blast with it,” she said. “It’s just been an awesome ride. It’s one thing to be able to do what you love, but it’s another thing to be able to do it with people you love and people who mean something to you – that was a huge blessing for me and my music and career – John taught me so much in the process.”

Her second single, “Pearls,” is at radio now, and she is also beginning to work on songs for her next album. She said that while she will definitely have another single out following “Pearls,” she is unsure if it will be another song off “Corn Fed,” or a new song.

One song in particular on “Corn Fed” will immediately jump out when listening to the CD – “High Horses.”

“I would love for it to be a single, but I don’t know if it’ll ever see the light of day,” she said about the song that tells people to “get off your high horses,” and to “live life the way we want to live it and get off each other’s backs.”

“Radio can be kind of conservative, and sometimes promotions staff gets nervous. If I was a little more established, there might be a better chance of seeing it as a single . . . only time will tell as to what the next song is that will be out,” Brown said. “The future is bright, and we’re really excited.”

For the next few months, along with working on songs for her second Warner Brothers album, Brown and her band will be hitting the road, doing about 30 shows throughout the summer months.

“I’m really excited to be able to get out and play the music,” she said. “It’s really a fun album. It’s really my heart and soul, and a great expression of how I treat life and how life has treated me, so to speak.”

Brown hopes Winstock fans will have the chance to listen to her CD and be familiar with the songs that are on it.