Sam Shaber

Sam Shaber likes to make her fans happy. This is why, for the last two years, she has been on a perpetual "Taper's Tour," inviting people to take home her unique blend of raw pop by recording the shows. She also likes to play "all-request" gigs where fans can email requests for their favorite Shaber songs in advance, effectively writing the set-list themselves. Shaber took this one step further on February 18th, 2006 when she recorded her new live album, in my bones (live in chicago).

Shaber took this one step further on February 18th, 2006 when she recorded her new live album, in my bones (live in chicago). Fans from all over the country were encouraged to email requests and the result is a collection of previously unreleased songs that have long been crowd favorites, such as the passionately yearning title track "In My Bones;" If I was alone on a desert island/ I wouldn't be alone/I'm never alone/'cause you're in my bones; the upbeat summer anthem "Jersey to O.C.;" Grab the great unknown/Lean in to every breeze/Unturn every stone/From Jersey to O.C.; and the most requested song, "Cryin' Shame," about a lovesick teenage Scottish boy (complete with accent!); It's a cryin' shame/That you don't even know my name/An' ah swear sometimes it smarts/To feel you breathing down my heart.

There are also some tracks of pure Shaber banter, covering everything from high school crushes to Grey's Anatomy to a dinner party filled with sexually charged guests. Always impromptu, these moments are another large reason people love to see Sam live in concert. She is known for sending the audience from roaring laughter to deep saddness and back again in a matter of minutes. After a recent show, an audience member put it best when she sighed, "That was a work-out." Gene Shay at WXPN-fm in Philadelphia says Shaber is "Stark, raving, great!" Folkweb.com calls her "a riveting performer," and Femmusic.com voted her Top Female Performer.

Touring nationally year 'round, Shaber has won awards in the John Lennon, Billboard, and USA Songwriting Competitions for her driving melodies, smart lyrics, and soaring voice. She also won the ear of Columbia recording artist/producer Shawn Mullins ("Lullabye"), who produced her last album, eighty numbered streets, released in 2003 to great critical acclaim. Said Paste Magazine, "eighty numbered streets is confessional and emotional, but Shaber's salty falsetto and the stark beauty of this CD won't leave you drowning in your own tears." Daughter of late-screenwriter David Shaber (The Warriors, Nighthawks) and artist Alice Shaber, Sam uses her observer's eye and sharp wit. Her strong guitar style and broad voice have won comparisons as diverse as Alanis Morissette, Joni Mitchell, and Stevie Wonder. And her passion for showing an audience a good time is never more clear than in this intimate, raw, live release. Because in my bones is put together without pauses, the listener lives an entire show from beginning to end, a true document of one night, one Shaber, in Chicago.