Shonna Tucker grew up just outside of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, listening to the same salty-sweet mix of soul and country that made up the Arthur Alexander and James Carr singles recorded there decades before. She played bass in the Shoals scene from her high-school years until starting an eight-year stint as bassist and singer for the Drive-By Truckers. During Tucker's time with the band, they released critically acclaimed albums like “Go Go Boots”, which rose to #35 on the Billboard charts and garnered significant praise. They played on Betty Lavette’s “The Scene of the Crime” which was nominated for a Grammy, followed by “Potato Hole” with Booker T. Jones, which won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental album at the 52nd awards show. The band made appearances on both David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon’s late night shows, and toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

 

The music she makes today flows from the same vein as the music she grew up with: songs that haunt and float like Dolly Parton’s “Down from Dover” and ones that pulse and move like Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,”  that are at home among the donkeys and hens on her farm in Alabama. 

 

Shonna Tucker's debut album, “A Tell All”, was recorded by Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk) and released in Oct 2013. It features ten songs about love and jealously, nights spent on the road and nights spent in the kitchen, the things men do to women and women do for men. “All these songs came fast, in a few months time,” explains Tucker, ‘There was no theme or plan at all. Inspiration came from what was happening around me and that was a lot of different things." The first single, ‘Since Jimmy Came’ is about a very young and single mom who thought she had found true love until she had her son. The realization of priorities. Nature at it's finest.

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In February of 2016, Shonna joined Pegi Young and The Survivors on bass and harmony vocals alongside Spooner Oldham, Kelvin Holly and Phil Jones. She appears on the album 'RAW' which was released in Feb 2017 and has spent the last year touring with the band.

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 A note from Shonna about her new EP "Dreams Of Mine":

"I had the incredible honor of recording these songs with my dear friend, the legendary Spooner Oldham, back in May of this year (2018). I didn't plan on it happening this way at all, but we went in and recorded it all live in one afternoon. I wanted to do it at Portside Sound, which is studio B inside Cypress Moon Studios in Sheffield, AL. This used to be the "new" Muscle Shoals Sound Studio where a million amazing songs were recorded. It has a real thick soulful vibe there and my friends who started Portside are putting everything they have into getting things going strong over there. Jamie Sego was the engineer and mixed all of the songs.
He is just the best and everything was so smooth and easy and fun. We cut the tracks live in one room with me on acoustic and vocals and Spooner on Whurly. He played melodica on 'Dreams Of Mine". I went back and added harmonies and I even talked Spooner into singing with me on 'The One I Do Not Know'. We could not have had any more fun! Chris Bethea at Muscle Shoals Mastering did a most excellent job with mastering.

It means the world to me that I got to do this project with Spooner. He is family to me and I have yet, in the 25 years I've known him, to be any less fascinated and amazed by his raw talent and his precious gentle and caring soul. Another huge reason this EP is so very special to me is that my best little buddy, Lucas was right there by my side the whole time. He was a 7 pound Chihuahua, my best friend and soul mate. He was about to turn 12 and fighting the cancer when we were recording. He passed on a few months later. His sweet spirit is here all over these songs and I hope you can feel his love. These songs are all love songs to someone I haven't met yet, inspired by my dreams and to all of us who keep believing in magic. Here's to you, dear Lucas. Here's to all of you. Here's to love. Thank you so much."
 

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