Tiffany Shea
Nashville, TN
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I was born into music. My father, a drummer; mom a piano teacher. I remember climbing up onto the piano bench in that tiny living room where she taught 35 students a week, feeling contentment as I discovered each note. The bench seemed at least 88 stories tall from my 3-year-old point of view, and with my pooh-bear-blanket in hand, I would pluck away at the keys for hours without awareness that life was happening around me. Mom and I used to play a 'game' where I would stand in the other room and she would play any note or chord, and I would tell her what it was. We also played a game in the car-- I would 'guess' which key a song on the radio was in... then we'd check it when we got home (and I was usually right!). The music was in me, and I spent hours and years learning piano and guitar (mostly by ear). Mom was usually amazed when she had taught one of her students a classical piece, and from hearing it over and over from my room, I was able to sit down and play it in its entirety.
My childhood was immersed in a church where we sang for at least 2 hours each week before the sermon. At school I was always in the musical programs and such. I spent most of my younger teen years attending city programs for Performing Arts. In high school and college I played flute in concert band and sang in choir all-state ensembles, studying voice and piano privately. After that, rumor has it that I was a Ms. Texas Scholarship Pageant contestant as well as a show-girl at Six Flags Over Texas and on a cruise ship... but I'll not admit if all of that is actually true or not!? LOL... (I wonder if I should work sequins, feathers, and the can-can into my rock show...hmmm)

Someone wrote a song about me once entitled "Renaissance Girl," as they said that my passion for music, art, theatre, dance, literature, history and world culture seemed to define me in a lot of ways...and I guess they were right. In their description of me, though, they left out the ever-changing colors of my hair as another defining attribute!! Ultimately I hope that people will be able to define me by someone who is kind, patient, compassionate, open-minded, trustworthy and FUN.
By the 3rd year of college at University of North Texas, I became unsettled with the lack of specific direction for my life. I didn't want to be a jack-of-all-trades type, however I couldn't pick just one outlet as I loved (and still love) them all equally. However, I knew I would need to focus my energies into something that would turn into a career.
Just as I was leaving my teenage years, a friend of mine (who was in my favortie local rock band) decided it would be his mission to get me to an open mic night at Club Dada in Dallas. I had only written a handful of songs at that time, and was a horrible guitarist (I learned guitar from a napkin-sketch lesson with 4 chord positions on it-- given to me by a friend... because I wanted to 'jam with the guys' in the Bruce Hall Dorm on weekends, which is difficult as a pianist)...
My friend came to my house and "kidnapped" me, taking me to my first 'gig' (well, a gig in a training bra sorta way), and that night I performed 3 of my own songs, (which I have on tape and totally sucked)-- but the experience was a rush that changed my life entirely. I felt at that moment that I knew what I was put on the planet to do. The next year and a half I focused on guitar and songwriting, and then the gigs and the band came in 1997 and well, a-few-continents-of-touring-in-support-of-13-albums later, "the rest is history!"
Being alone writing, recording & producing in a studio, or on stage with my guitar is still the only place I really feel entirely normal... J/K... (sorta).
I am currently (2009) living in Nashville, Tennessee, pursuing television & film licensing with my back-catalogue, while re-recording a lot of old demo's, and writing/recording new stuff all the time, and nationally touring, of course!!!
"If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”
-Emily Dickenson
There have been times when I couldn't express my life-place thru music or writing, so I paint. When there are no colors to accurately capture the inner hues, I can always just sit in my favorite comfy chair, put on my iPod, and find other peoples’ art & music somehow capturing my nebulous feelings perfectly.
Music and Art provide Release. My hope is to be an artist who can provide expression for anyone listening, reminding us that we all love the same, cry the same, and hope the same. Raw human emotion. We are never alone in our life-place. I am you are me. My personal goal in life is to be a humble, reverent vessel of the Higher, Greater Plan & Purpose. We all come here to learn, teach and grow. There is comfort in clinging to the abundance of Grace.
So... Sing. Laugh. Love. Hope. Dream. Dance. Believe. Forgive. Accept. Inspire. Understand. Trust. Transcend. Embrace. Release. Shine.
-Tiffany Shea
"It’ll all be ok in the end. If it's not ok, it's not the end."
Tiffany Shea
Nashville, TN
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