Insider Sessions
Shannon Curtis
The Insider Sessions with Erika Iverson
Shannon Curtis. Photograph by Steve Babuljak
The Insider Sessions are inspired by the emotion, power, and soul that go into one, simple song. The aim is to get closer and more personal to the music and the art. The acoustic sound, I believe, is perfect for this. It allows you to hear only instruments, only voice, no background fuzz, and nothing channeling the noise but our own ears. The artists will choose their own place to play, sometimes in a van, sometimes on a bus, sometimes simply in an alley way; either way each session is authentic and personal. So take a look at these artists, some are from Iowa, some just passing through, and as you'll sometimes find, just getting started. Listen and enjoy the sounds that erupt throughout our beautiful state.
~ Erika Iverson
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Shannon Curtis is an angel from California. I met her through Roxi Copland who I had an amazing interview with earlier on. I met them at their show in Ames, but with no real way to get a good sounding piano performance without background bar noise, we decided to wait and Roxi was sweet enough to let us do the interview in her house later that weekend (you might recognize the background)! So Sunday afternoon I headed over to Des Moines a couple hours before they would leave for the next leg of the tour. Shannon and I sat down to start and as the first notes came from her opening song, with light shining through the back window onto her dark hair, she sounded like an angel. Her sound was like little bites of soulful candy that make your heart skip and jump. Your chest patters a little on certain lines. Shannon writes love songs, she told me, and the ones she writes make you want to be in love. Thank you Shannon, it was a beautiful afternoon and you made it even more so!
~ Erika
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Erika Iverson attends Iowa State University for Journalism and Philosophy. She is a music fanatic that moonlights as a writer for Insider Iowa. Some of her old favorites include Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Bill Withers, The Who, The Doors, Buddy Guy, throw a little Cher in there (Half-breed!!!), Stevie Nicks, and a list that could be a story all it's own... When her heart plays music it plays bluegrass, when her soul plays music it plays the violin.
