The Reverend Shawn Amos - Soul Brother No. 1

Album: Soul Brother No. 1
Size: 82,3 MB
Time: 35:41
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2024
Styles: Soul/Funk/Rock mix
Art: Front

1. Revelation (3:55)
2. Stone Cold Love (3:27)
3. What It Is To Be Black (3:19)
4. Back To The Beginning (3:29)
5. It's All Gonna Change (For The Better) (3:51)
6. Soul Brother No. 1 (4:41)
7. Circles (3:22)
8. Hammer (2:30)
9. Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey (2:18)
10. Things Will Be Fine (4:44)

Soul Brother No. 1 represents both the culmination of a unique, two-decade-plus artistic career, and a breakthrough in an ongoing journey of self-exploration. From the get-go, Amos has expressed an ever-evolving musical vision through rootsy Americana, singer-songwriter pop, and, as harmonica ace The Reverend Shawn Amos, the blues. Through “The Rev,” Amos immersed himself in African American culture, directly linking to the ongoing story of his people’s struggles, triumphs, and unshakable joy. “The whole reason I started playing the blues,” he says, “was it connected me to my race in a way that I hadn’t fully understood. With Soul Brother No. 1, I’m taking that journey even deeper.”

Seeking new depths, Amos and producer James Saez (Social Distortion, The Road Kings) crafted a sonic world redolent of the socially conscious, Afrocentric ’70s soul and funk. Amos and Saez assembled a dream team: drummer Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Average White Band, Chaka Khan), bassist Jerry “Wyzard” Seay (Stevie Nicks, Keb’ Mo’, Mother’s Finest), keyboardist-songwriter Dapo Torimiro (Lauryn Hill, Earth, Wind & Fire), and longtime Amos guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts.

The fierce vitality and spirit of self-reconnection underpinning Soul Brother No. 1 initially emerged through words and story rather than song, as Amos dug deep into his life and generational experience to author his first published book, the NAACP Image Award-winning youth novel Cookies & Milk, a semi-autobiographical tale based on his latchkey kid years as the son of cookie entrepreneur Wally “Famous” Amos and erstwhile nightclub chanteuse Shirley “Shirl-ee May” Ellis. Like the book’s protagonist, Ellis Johnson, Amos was a Black child of divorce with mostly white friends, struggling to find his identity in colorful-but-chaotic ’70s Hollywood.

In those hothouse times, Amos’s hustler father bequeathed him preternatural willpower to manifest big dreams, but feelings of blood kinship came as much from Parliament-Funkadelic, Isaac Hayes, and the Jackson 5 as they did from Amos’s broken home. The rich, righteous world of Cookies & Milk – and 2023 sequel Ellis Johnson Might Be Famous – emboldened songwriter Amos to tap back into his family of choice: the seminal soul artists of the Black Power era.

In the thick of making Soul Brother No. 1, Amos realized, “I’ve spent so much of my life partially dimming my own light. No more. With this album, I am uncovering every last fucking root, undoing my own programming. I was brought up to think I was white, cut off from my own roots. No more. I spent weeks trying to figure out who this version of Black Pride is for me. Now I know. Soul Brother No. 1 is who I am.” /Blues Rock Review

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Reverend Shawn Amos - The Cause Of It All

Size: 88.0 MB
Time: 37:32
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2021
Styles: Electric/Acoustic Blues, Harmonica Blues
Art: Front & Back

01. Spoonful (3:59)
02. Goin' To The Church (4:30)
03. Still A Fool (3:29)
04. Color And Kind (4:14)
05. Serves Me Right To Suffer (5:38)
06. I'm Ready (2:17)
07. Baby, Please Don't Go (3:12)
08. Can't Hold Out Much Longer (3:34)
09. Hoochie Coochie Man (4:11)
10. Little Anna Mae (2:25)

“I want to bring the ancestors into the room,” says The Reverend Shawn Amos, likening himself to the griots of West Africa, a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who keep oral tradition alive, binding the people together with song.With The Cause of it All, alongside longtime guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts, The Revdoes exactly that, and not a moment too soon. This stripped-down collection of blues classics speaks to our shared sense of vulnerability and isolation, but with the joyful, contagious swagger that has long borne bluesmen –and their listeners –through trouble, into the light. The Cause of it All, The Reverend’s 4thstudio album (Shawn Amos’ 8th), arrives less than a year after Blue Sky, his full-band outing with the Brotherhood –including drummer Brady Blade and bassist Christopher Thomas. Even as lockdown commenced, Blue Skyhit #6 on the Billboard Blues Album chart and nabbed a 4-star review in American Songwriter. It remained in the Top Ten on the Roots Music ReportBlues Chart for thirty weeks. In lieu of gigging to promote Blue Sky, The Revand the Doctor made some potent, spiked lemonade out of some particularly bad pandemic lemons. They manifested a long-held desire of The Rev’s to journey back to the inspiration that launched him in 2014: raw, unbridled, canonical blues, presented in elemental duo format, no-frills, live in a room, as both testament and evangelism. The Cause of it Allharkens back to historic pairings like Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Junior Wells & Buddy Guy. The Revand the Doctor deliver standards and lesser-known chestnuts, all bracingly intimate, every word hanging unencumbered in the air like an incantation. Just as they have on stages throughout the world, these men leave a lot on the floor: the breath into the bullet microphone, the laughter, the fret buzz, the defiant foot stomp –everything reverberating in a spirit-filled space, offering soul sustenance as only a well-crafted song can.“There’s a bravery I wanted to capture,”The Revsays of the platters that inspired The Cause of it All, masterworks from icons like Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter. “I wanted to bring back a spontaneity that’s been lost.” Sure enough, with no rhythm section to mask the occasional reckless moment, the bare bones tunes evoke the rickety front porches and smoky back rooms in which they were born, places of both refuge and unabashed celebration. The Revexecutes his most assured vocals and harp playing yet, radiating within spartan arrangements percolating with Dr. Roberts’ unique, deeply sympathetic, snaky electric and acoustic stylings. “Quarantine was the perfect opportunity to do this,”The Revsays. It’s the right time forThe Cause of it All. Not only because it’s a box The Reverend Shawn Amos needed to check, but because it shows the power of elemental blues to soothe, entertain, and embolden folks who long for a lone, joyful, steadfast voice in the dark. Now more than ever.

The Cause Of It All MP3
The Cause Of It All FLAC

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The Reverend Shawn Amos - Live At Bear's

Size: 67,9 MB
Time: 29:20
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Electric blues
Art: Front

1. Hoodoo Man Blues (2:58)
2. Good Morning, School Girl (4:27)
3. I'm The Face (4:21)
4. Hoochie Coochie Man (5:05)
5. The Outlaw (2:48)
6. Boogie (3:02)
7. Wang Dang Doodle (6:36)

Also known as the Reverend Shawn Amos, Shawn Amos is a singer, songwriter, and producer with a style that alternates blues, roots rock, country, and gospel. After releasing his first full-length, Whitey McFearsun, in 1996, he made his label debut with his third album, Harlem, in 2000. It featured members of Crazy Horse and the Jayhawks. After establishing himself as a solo artist, he also became known as a multi-faceted label and marketing executive, among other enterprises, while continuing to release music. He delivered his seventh album, Breaks It Down, in 2018 before collaborating on the 2020 blues release Blue Sky with his newly formed backing band the Brotherhood.

Amos was born in New York City in 1967 to nightclub singer Shirl-ee May (Shirlee Ellis) and Wally Amos, founder of cookie brand Famous Amos. Raised mostly in Los Angeles, he returned to New York to study film as a college student, but segued from screenwriting to songwriting in the early '90s. After releasing the albums Whitey McFearsun and Be Real in 1996 and 1997, he signed with Unbreakable Records. Inspired by a museum exhibit dedicated to the Harlem Renaissance, his label debut, Harlem, was released in 2000. It featured guest appearances by the Jayhawks' Mark Olson and Crazy Horse guitarist Poncho Sampedro. The more acoustic-leaning In Between followed in 2002.

Amos then took a job overseeing the A&R department of Rhino's Shout! Factory, the label that would eventually release his fifth album, Thank You Shirl-ee May (A Love Story). It arrived in 2005, two years after his mother's death. Amos continued as vice president of Music & Original Content for the label through projects by William Shatner and Susanna Hoffs, while releasing his own material including the 2007 singles "Burned" (featuring Matthew Sweet) and "Long Time Gone" (with Julie Miller).

In the several years that passed before Amos' next album, among other events, he divorced, became an ordained minister, took a position as artistic director for Herb Alpert's Vibrato Jazz Grill in Los Angeles, and wrote an autobiographical serial for The Huffington Post. He also adopted the persona the Reverend Shawn Amos, issuing an EP under the name in 2014. The album Loves You followed in 2015 on the Put Together label and included guests such as the Blind Boys of Alabama and Missy Andersen. He returned in 2018 with his seventh LP, Breaks It Down. A contemporary protest album, it included performances by friend and Blues Brothers drummer Steve Jordan, bassist Larry Taylor (Canned Heat, Tom Waits), and drummer Steve Potts (Booker T. & the MG's, Gregg Allman).

In 2019, Amos formed the Brotherhood with guitarist Chris "Doctor" Roberts, bassist Christopher Thomas (Terence Blanchard, Norah Jones), and drummer Brady Blade (Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris). Credited as the Reverend Shawn Amos & the Brotherhood, they delivered Blue Sky in 2020. /Biography by Marcy Donelson, AllMusic

Personnel: The Reverend Shawn Amos (vocals, harmonica); Brady Blade (drums); Chris "Doctor" Roberts (guitar); Dorsey Summerfield (saxophone); Chris Thomas (bass).

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The Reverend Shawn Amos & The Brotherhood - Blue Sky

Size: 75,9 MB
Time: 32:30
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2020
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

01. Stranger Than Today (3:52)
02. Troubled Man (3:35)
03. Her Letter (3:11)
04. Counting Down The Days (3:14)
05. Hold Back (1:38)
06. The Job Is Never Done (2:24)
07. The Pity And The Pain (3:18)
08. Albion Blues (4:18)
09. 27 Dollars (2:50)
10. Keep The Faith, Have Some Fun (4:06)

The Reverend Shawn Amos’ swampy new album, “Blue Sky,” released under the moniker The Reverend Shawn Amos & The Brotherhood, is a collaboration between the Rev and some old friends: drummer Brady Blade (Buddy & Julie Miller, Indigo Girls), bassist Christopher Thomas (Norah Jones, Macy Gray), and longtime Rev guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts.

Friends of The Brotherhood are:
Piper Amos - voice
Sharlotte Gibson - voice
Kenya Hathaway - voice
Matt Hubbard - piano, Wurlitzer, Hammond
Ben Peeler - lap steel, pedal steel, dobro, mandolin

Since 2018’s acclaimed, politically charged Breaks it Down, the Rev has been on the road nonstop. 2019 saw him alighting in Texas, where the South begins, the West ends, and something else is taking shape – a world away, geographically and culturally, from his native Los Angeles. Here, he gathered the Brotherhood, creating a sense of home in his rootlessness. Blade, Thomas, and Roberts provide not only musical, but also spiritual and emotional support for embracing new territory, artistically and otherwise.

Unlike past Shawn Amos collaborations with Matthew Sweet and Solomon Burke, the Brotherhood is in it for the long haul. “Everybody feels pride of ownership,” the Rev says of Blue Sky. The band has already hit the road and will tour through 2020. “These songs are really special to Shawn,” says Brady Blade, who previously hosted the Rev’s debut album at his Shreveport studio, and laid down drums. “It’s up to us whether we’re ready to jump in and contribute 150%. If we’re not, it’s not a brotherhood.”

Clearly, from the barn-burning blues stomp of “Counting Down the Days” to the smoky R & B of “Albion Blues” to the rollicking “27 Dollars,” the Brotherhood is, indeed, down. The material showcases Shawn Amos’s songwriting like no previous Rev outing; here furious, there vulnerable; here gadabout and crazy, there forlorn and tender; all buoyed by musicians emboldening a beloved family member. “When I first played blues,” the Rev says, “I had no interest in writing. I put up a firewall between the Rev and my Americana past.” Meaning his three Shawn Amos albums, lauded singer-songwriter offerings featuring Ray Parker, Jr., Solomon Burke, and the Jayhawks’ Mark Olson. “But I slowly got the bug again. This is the first time I’ve had the space to try to be more of a singersongwriter within the confines of the blues.”

Brady Blade says, “Brotherhood, to me, means togetherness, being able to interact with each other in a more personal way because it’s not like ‘Oh, he's my boss. I'm just the side guy.’ The Brotherhood, in this context with Shawn, helps drive the music. Because the tension must be there. Also, the happiness must be there. For all of us, the happiness has definitely come out on this record.”

Happiness due in part to a creative spirit fully immersed in the work, able to access and manifest the nitty-gritty because his brothers have his back. “My whole artistic life has been a process of: how do I get all of me to show up?” the Rev says. “I fought hard to be here, so I’m gonna make sure all of me shows up.” ~Robert Burke Warren

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The Reverend Shawn Amos - Kitchen Table Blues, Vol. 1

Size: 48,1 MB
Time: 20:40
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2019
Styles: Blues
Art: Front

01. Ooh La La (Live Over Sunday Breakfast, Van Nuys, Ca, 2016) (5:00)
02. Hold On (Live Over Sunday Breakfast, Van Nuys, Ca, 2016) (3:29)
03. Whip It (Live Over Sunday Breakfast, Van Nuys, Ca, 2016) (3:12)
04. Have Love Will Travel (Live Over Sunday Breakfast, Van Nuys, Ca, 2016) (4:22)
05. Jesus Gonna Be Here (Live Over Sunday Breakfast, Van Nuys, Ca, 2016) (4:35)

For nearly two years, I made breakfast and played blues around my kitchen table with family and friends. 'Kitchen Table Blues, Vol. 1' is a collection of five of my favorite Sunday jams. ~Shawn Amos

Kitchen Table Blues, Vol. 1

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The Reverend Shawn Amos - Breaks It Down

Size: 164 MB
Time: 29:06
File: FLAC
Released: 2018
Styles: Electric Blues, Gospel
Art: Front

01. Moved (4:00)
02. 2017 (4:04)
03. Hold Hands (2:44)
04. The Jean Genie (4:16)
05. Uncle Tom's Prayer (1:20)
06. Does My Life Matter (3:26)
07. (We've Got To) Come Together (2:32)
08. Ain't Gonna Name Names (2:51)
09. (What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding (3:48)

The Reverend Shawn Amos was born the son of Wally Amos founder of the Famous Amos cookie brand. Amos attended film school at New York University and discovered the blues by reading Peter Guralnick’s book “Feel Like Going Home”. He traveled the south and fell in love with the music of Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and Junior Wells. He released his debut recording “In Between” in 2002. Amos became an A & R executive at Rhino Entertainment; and Vice President of A& R at Shout! Factory where he specialized in DVD and audio titles for legacy artists. While working with Quincy Jones, Solomon Burke and others, he helped produce some Grammy nominated recordings.

Amos’ estranged mother Shirlee Ellis was a night club singer who committed suicide in 2003. In 2005 he conceived, wrote, and produced a tribute album “Thank You Shirl-ee May” also on Shout! Factory. In 2011 Amos followed up with a third album “Harlem”.

Amos has since become an ordained minister with The Universal Life Church. The Reverend Shawn Amos released “Tells It” in 2014 and followed up with 2015’s “The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You”.

This is Amos’ third album as a blues preacher; among the featured musicians are Michael Toles, guitar; Charles Hodges, keyboards; Leroy Hodges Jr., bass; and Steve Potts, drums. While driving through the south, this past spring, Amos was reminded of his color and of the songs of freedom. He has written or co-written five originals. “Moved” is a duet featuring Amos on harmonica and Chris “Doc” Roberts on guitar; it was recorded at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

On “2017”, recorded at Memphis’ Royal Studios, Amos is joined by The Hi-Rhythm Section. Influenced by both Curtis Mayfield, and Pops Staples, Amos gets into a groove.

“Hold Hands” is a plea for peace; while “Ain’t Gonna Name Names” is a fun tune recorded at the Ocean Studios in Burbank, California.

Amos’ “Freedom Suite” opens with “Uncle Tom’s Prayer”, a beautiful one minute civil rights song first recorded by The Freedom Singer’s Cordell Hull Reagon in the early 1960’s. Bukka White’s delta blues poem “Does My Life Matter” follows. The suite ends with a horn section on the funky “We’ve Got To Come Together” featuring a quote from Martin Luther King.

The only two covers are David Bowie’s 1972 hit “The Jean Genie”; and the closer “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” written by Nick Lowe in 1974 when he was with the band “Brinsley Schwarz”. The latter has also been recorded by Joe Louis Walker; Keb Mo’; The Holmes Brothers, and by Curtis Stigers as part of the soundtrack of the film “The Bodyguard”.

Amos combines personal experiences with social issues on this inspirational recording. ~Richard Ludmerer

Breaks It Down

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The Reverend Shawn Amos - The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You

Size: 102,1 MB
Time: 38:38
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2015
Styles: Blues, R&B
Art: Front

01. Days Of Depression (2:05)
02. Brand New Man (2:05)
03. Boogie (3:15)
04. Brothers' Keeper (3:08)
05. You're Gonna Miss Me (When I Get Home) (3:25)
06. Joliet Bound (3:42)
07. Will You Be Mine (5:31)
08. The Outlaw (2:29)
09. Bright Lights, Big City (3:02)
10. Hollywood Blues (4:15)
11. Put Together (2:43)
12. The Last Day I'm Loving You (2:52)

Debut full-length blues album features guest appearances by Grammy winners Blind Boys of Alabama and 2x Grammy nominated Mindi Abair, who also makes debut as album producer.

Certified pure blues singer, harmonica player, songwriter and producer, The Reverend Shawn Amos is on a mission to spread his glorious secular gospel to all. The son of chocolate chip cookie magnate Wally “Famous” Amos and night club singer Shirl-ee May Ellis, he is dedicated to continuing, extending and spreading the tradition of the blues with unsurpassed fervor and emotional expression. Born in New York City, raised up on the gritty Sunset Strip in the seventies and preceding his performing career with many successful musical ventures, Amos breaks nearly every cliché with his talent and unstoppable drive. The results are in evidence on his four previous releases beginning with In Between (2002) and culminating to date with the sizzling and embraceable The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You. It is required listening for navigating the vicissitudes, meeting the challenges and enjoying the spoils of modern living. The album marks the producing debut of 2x Grammy nominee, Mindi Abair.

Ten bone-deep originals and two well-chosen covers contain the combined exceptional ensemble skills of Chris “Doctor” Roberts (guitars), Brady Blade (drums, percussion), Chris Thomas (bass), Anthony Marinelli, Hassell Teekell (keyboards), Mindi Abair (saxophones, producer), Lewis Smith (trumpet), Forever Jones (backing vocals) and Nick Lane (horn arrangements). In addition, guest artists The Blind Boys of Alabama and Missy Andersen lend their illustrious presence to two tracks. “Days of Depression,” with the lauded gospel group adding considerable gravitas, harkens back to the prewar South. Grinding slowly and inexorably forward on a haunting, hypnotic work song guitar riff, it has Amos intoning the poetic lyrics “In my days of depression I could take my hands off the wheel, let me go where the wind blows, let me go with the Lord.” “Brand New Man,” conversely, “tears the roof off the sucka” with a stomping R&B groove to lift listeners right out of their seats. Amos unleashes his soul power while making his carnal desires clear with “Baby gonna make me a brand new man” as a profane, repeating mantra dynamically charged with the stop-time aside “I’m feeling lonely, I’m feeling hungry, you got me wanting you”, as Roberts shreds on his axe. The throbbing “Boogie” would be lascivious merely with the music, though Amos leaves no doubt as to his desires with the invitation “C’mon and boogie (2x), I ain’t got all night, keep this thing locked tight” while the sensuous Missy Andersen urgently concurs “C’mon and boogie (2x), I ain’t got too long, babe, I’ve done something wrong” and Amos blows out the reeds on his harp.

He turns from his basic primal needs to a higher calling with the classic Memphis soul of “Brothers’ Keeper.” It could not be more timely as he confides “I’m gonna lead with my heart, open my hand from the start, and be my brothers’ keeper, be my brothers’ keeper,” his sinewy vocals moving easily from a bluesy growl to a soaring falsetto. The stone funk of “You’re Gonna Miss Me (When I Get Home)” allows Amos to drip malevolence by calling out his unfaithful lover with “I work all damn day and night for you, you take all of my money, choke them credit cards blue. I’m gonna take my good thing back, you gonna feel a cold chill at night in the sack,” his harp wailing in sympathy. A sprightly two-beat cover of Minnie Lawler’s “Joliet Bound” affords Roberts the opportunity to flaunt his impressive six-string skills as he weaves expressive blues lines around Amos relating with appropriate dread his tale of woe regarding the infamous Illinois prison.

The dramatic, hook-heavy R&B of “Will You Be Mine” is a vocal and musical show-stopper with Amos passionately extolling with all his might “You’ve been running with the wrong man, let me get you on the right plan. And we’ll go driving, away from here” in a classic plea for starting over and seeking redemption intensified by his lyrical harp lines. He struts, swaggers and menaces on “Outlaw” as Lucifer’s disciple with lyrics like “The good Lord may be your savior, but never was no friend of mine (2x). I preach the good book of ‘El Paso,’ keep your boots and your pistol shined” as Roberts fires off a distorted solo. The sweet-singing Mindi Abair duets in harmony with Amos on the Jimmy Reed classic “Bright Lights Big City” as the band lightens the mood by loping appealingly in a lilting boogie shuffle.

Album producer, Mindi Abair, co-wrote the swinging shuffle “Hollywood Blues” as a snarling look at life in “Tinsel Town.” Amos accuses with the scalding, uncensored street lyrics of “These folks got gold at their fingertips, while I’m in my piece of shit, driving down the Sunset Strip” and Abair honks and squeals with venom on her alto sax. “Put Together” is a sexy, funky tribute to a modern day “femme fatale,” Amos praising and pleading “…your do rag, honey you’re all right. Baby, you’re put together. I just wanna come home, baby, can you let me come home? I won’t stay too long if you can let me get it” and Roberts wringing prurient licks from his guitar. Amos opts to end his set with the tender soul ballad “The Last Day I’m Loving You”, though he spikes it with a kicker heard in the capper “You got the mojo and the moves to make it hard, to keep my right mind in front and keep me strong. You got them ten dollar words you know how to use, but this is the last day I’m loving you.”

As opposed to “saving” souls, the temporal and spirit-nourishing blues of the “right” Reverend will provide “soul” as well as love to one and all. Romantic love and lust, along with vengeance may be standard blues fare. However, in the hands, heart and head of Shawn Amos they become the seeds for sowing and reaping life lessons as well as unqualified entertainment of the highest order. The good Rev may promote what some call the “devil’s music,” but the figurative “religious” experience is a God send. ~Dave Rubin, KBA recipient in Journalism

The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You

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Shawn Amos - The Reverend Shawn Amos Tells It EP

Size: 46,5 MB
Time: 19:53
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Modern Electric Blues
Art: Front

01. Hoodoo Man Blues (2:47)
02. (The Girl Is) Heavy (2:18)
03. I'm The Face (3:03)
04. Something Inside Of Me (4:58)
05. Good Morning, School Girl (3:42)
06. Sometimes I Wonder (3:01)

Shawn Amos is a jack-of-all-trades. He is a singer-songwriter, as record producer and CEO of Freshwire, a digital creation company that was bought by Omnicom and they insisted he keep running it.
He is the youngest son of Wally Amos, the founder of the "Famous Amos" chocolate chip cookie empire.
Amos has been profiled on National Public Radio (NPR), as well as in songwriter magazines.
His newest EP "The Reverend Shawn Amos Tells It" consists of six tracks, two of which were written by Amos. "The overarching thing for me was that a lot of the blues has been reduced to bar band's music and my blueprint since the beginning of this was to stick to a particular time frame such as the 1950s and 1960s in the Chicago realm, since that is where the blues was born and I wanted to pay homage to that moment in time. That was my guiding principle," he said.
Amos continued, "We recorded the album in December and I spent the first seven months playing live just learning the songs and doing them justice. I was getting immersed in that Chicago blues catalog."
He has been influenced by the classics, which include such innovators as Robert Johnson, Son House, Leadbelly and Memphis Minnie.
From his newest EP, Amos listed the closing track "Sometimes I Wonder" as his personal favorite due to its "simplistic message," yet his favorite cover tune on the record is the opener "Hoodoo Man Blues."
Throughout his career, he has collaborated with the iconic R&B sensation Solomon Burke when Shawn was a Vice President of A&R at Shout! Factory Records. They became close friends ever since, and Solomon was the godfather to Shawn's oldest daughter, as well as a major influence in his music. "He was so gracious and I played with him on stage. He was very generous in every way and I miss him so much. The guy was an amazing singer and an amazing spirit and he was very impactful to me and my family," he said.

The Reverend Shawn Amos Tells It

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