Shawn Amos facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Shawn Ellis Amos
|
|
|---|---|
Amos at the Ramblin' Roots festival in Utrecht
|
|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Reverend Shawn Amos |
| Born | September 13, 1967 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Blues, roots, Americana, folk |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, singer, writer, entrepreneur, record producer |
| Instruments | Vocals, harmonica, guitar |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Labels | Rhino, Shout! Factory, Put Together Music |
| Associated acts | Ruthie Foster, Mindi Abair, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Solomon Burke, Julie Miller, Matthew Sweet |
Shawn Ellis Amos (born September 13, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, and author. He is also a record producer and works in digital marketing, which helps companies promote themselves online.
Amos is well-known as a blues singer and harmonica player, often called "The Reverend Shawn Amos." He has released many albums and songs under this name.
About Shawn Amos
Shawn Amos was born in New York. He is the youngest son of Wally Amos, who started the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie company. His mother, Shirley Ellis Amos, was a singer in the early 1960s, known as Shirl-ee May.
Like his father, Shawn Amos worked in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency, a big company that represents artists. He studied at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He left college early to work on screenplays for A&M Films. In 2011, he wrote a series of articles about growing up in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
Shawn Amos has three children. His half-sister, Sarah Amos, works as an executive at Marvel Entertainment.
Shawn Amos's Music Journey
Early Music Career (1996–2001)
In 1997, Shawn Amos started working at Rhino Entertainment, a record company. There, he helped create many music collections, including a special box set called Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words from the Harlem Renaissance, which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
While at Rhino, he began working on his first album, Harlem, released in 2000. The album was inspired by a museum exhibit about the Harlem Renaissance, a time when Black art and culture thrived.
In 2001, Amos produced a music collection for the famous musician Quincy Jones. After that, Jones asked Amos to be the executive director of his Listen Up Foundation. That same year, Amos released his second album, In Between.
Producing Music for Others (2002–2006)
In 2003, Shawn Amos joined a new entertainment company called Shout! Factory. He was in charge of finding and developing new music artists.
From 2005 to 2006, Amos helped create new versions of famous albums. He worked on a remake of Marvin Gaye's 1971 album What's Going On, performed by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. He also helped create a remix album of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass's Whipped Cream and Other Delights. He even performed with Herb Alpert on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2006.
Amos also worked on the last three albums by the legendary singer Solomon Burke. He also oversaw the first two albums in the Under the Covers series by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs.
Thank You Shirl-ee May (2005–2007)
In 2005, Shawn Amos released his third album, Thank You Shirl-ee May. This album tells the story of his mother, Shirlee Ellis Amos, who was a club singer in the 1960s. Songs on the album, like "New York City 1964," are a loving tribute to her life as a singer.
In 2007, Amos performed in and produced a televised concert called Solomon Burke & Friends: Live in Nashville. Solomon Burke even sang Amos's song "Vicious Circle" from the Harlem album.
The Reverend Shawn Amos (2014–Present)
After taking a break to work on digital marketing, Shawn Amos returned to roots music in 2014 with his album The Reverend Shawn Amos Tells It. In 2015, he released his fifth album, The Reverend Shawn Amos Loves You, produced by jazz saxophonist Mindi Abair. In 2018, he released The Reverend Shawn Amos Breaks It Down, which had political themes.
Amos also created and starred in a YouTube series called Kitchen Table Blues, which had 90 episodes from 2015 to 2016. Some of the songs from the series were released as EPs (short albums) in 2019. In 2016, Amos played harmonica for the main theme song of the AMC TV show Preacher.
In 2017, Amos became the Artistic Director for Herb Alpert's jazz club, Herb Alpert's Vibrato Grill & Jazz, in Los Angeles. He left this role in 2018 to focus more on touring and performing his music.
Shawn Amos has also helped organize jazz and blues concerts for the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California, for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.
In September 2019, Amos announced on his YouTube channel that he was forming a new band called The Brotherhood. The band includes drummer Brady Blade, bassist Christopher Thomas, and guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts.
The Reverend Shawn Amos & The Brotherhood (2020–Present)
Shawn Amos and The Brotherhood released their first album together, Blue Sky, on April 17, 2020.
The album features guest singers Ruthie Foster and Kenya Hathaway. Blue Sky was very popular, reaching number 6 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. American Songwriter magazine gave the album a high rating, saying it was "so rousing it outshines his earlier output like never before." The album also reached number 36 on the Americana Music Association Radio Chart.
Shawn Amos's Other Work
Digital Marketing (2009–Present)
In 2009, Shawn Amos started his own company, Amos Content Group. This company created content for digital media and traditional businesses. In 2012, The New York Times announced that his company was bought by two larger companies, FleishmanHillard and GMR Marketing, and was renamed Freshwire.
In October 2012, Forbes magazine named Shawn Amos one of their "Up and Comers," recognizing him as a rising star in business. Amos has also spoken at many important industry events, including the Milken Institute, the Thread Summit in Colorado, the CES Convention in Las Vegas, and TEDxEast.
In 2015, Freshwire became FleishmanHillard ContentWorks, and Amos was named Chief Content Innovation Officer for the Americas.
Amos left FleishmanHillard in 2016 and started a new company called Put Together Media. In 2017, his company merged with a New York communications firm called Hudson Cutler.
Author
In June 2020, Publishers Weekly announced that the book publisher Little Brown and Company bought the rights to Shawn Amos's first novel, Cookies & Milk. The book was planned to be published in Spring 2022.
In May 2022, Deadline Hollywood announced that Disney Branded Television would turn Shawn Amos's novel Cookies & Milk into an animated series. The project is being produced by famous actor Laurence Fishburne and Helen Sugland, along with Jesse Murphy, James Sears Bryant, and Shawn Amos himself.
On January 12, 2023, Cookies & Milk was nominated for the Outstanding Literary Work - Youth/Teens category at the 54th NAACP Image Awards, which celebrates achievements by people of color in entertainment.
More About His Work
You can find a full list of Shawn Amos's work on AllMusic.
