“On her new album Traveling Show, Nashville’s Tai Shan turns the stories she’s heard into music and lyrics you can live with, like a trusted companion who knows just when to talk and when to listen. Fusing soul, jazz, and pop, she creates an intimate space for reflection.”
About:
Tai Shan is an Americana songwriter whose music has been featured in Billboard Magazine, American Songwriter, Americana UK, and on NPR. Based out of Nashville, her songwriting focuses on positive messages. Her song, “Burn it Down” celebrates 100 years since the “right to vote” and was featured in Billboard Magazine. A magna cum laude graduate of Cornish College of the Arts, Tai Shan and her husband Austin who beatboxes and plays trumpet as the other half of the group toured the United States, Mexico, and Canada, performed for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and at the famous Bluebird Café in Nashville.
An Arts- trained classical and jazz composer, Tai is known for her incredible versatility, in both music and subject matter. Though she has plenty of her own life stories to draw from—including singing for the Pope, watching all of her belongings ignite in a house fire, playing a music tour through Yellowstone National Park, and teaching music at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (Mo-Pop), Dusty Strings, and Seattle Girls School—Tai prefers to mine literature. She’s penned over 50 songs, in collaboration with Bushwick Book Club, that give musical voice to literary characters and immerse the audience in the story, the same way a novel does. In 2016, Tai was awarded a Jack Straw Cultural Center artist recording grant to complete her third album, Meet in the Middle.
Tai Shan & her husband Austin Garrison were married in 2016, taking a vow that a married pair of artists can succeed in making a life together. Together, they tour the US in a 13ft trailer. They share a passion for connecting with an incredible community of people.
Awards:
- Finalist of the USA Songwriting Competition
- Finalist of the Jane Titland Memorial Songwriting Contest
- Jack Straw Cultural Center Grant Recipient
