Shawn Amos

Shawn Ellis Amos (born September 13, 1967 in New York, New York) is an American songwriter, singer, record producer, web personality and content creator, and pop culture commentator. He is currently seen as the host of the daily web magazine show Retro Minute which is distributed by GetBack.com.

Amos’s songs and are notable for their starkly poetic lyrics which incorporate social commentary, historical influences, philosophy, and expressionistic wordplay. His recordings owe much to the Americana genre and often combine seemingly disparate musical influences such as country, soul and pop into the arrangements. His most recent album is Thank You Shirl-ee May released in 2005. It was written as an homage to his mother, a nightclub singer who performed under the stage name “Shirl-ee May”.

Amos has worked with an eclectic group of artists as a producer, ranging from stand-up comedians to jazz musicians to R&B singers to mainstream pop culture icons.

Personal Background

Amos is the youngest son of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie founder Wally Amos and the only son of Shirlee Ellis (professionally known as Shirl-ee May in the early 1960s). His parents divorced when Amos was seven. He moved between New York, California, Hawaii, and Massachusetts as a child, attending the Williston Northampton School, a boarding school in Easthampton, Massachusetts for his last two years of high school. After high school, Amos studied communications at Boston University and then film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Throughout Amos’ childhood and adulthood, his mother suffered from schizo-affective disorder and ultimately committed suicide in 2003. The trauma of the event and his subsequent discovery of her early singing career were the inspiration behind his 2005 album release Thank You Shirl-ee May. He has since donated his time to the mental health organizations Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in Los Angeles and the Rita Project in New York. Amos has also dedicated much of his time to local non-profit organizations dedicated to working with at-risk youth. He also sits on the Board of Trustees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Amos married actress Marta Martin in 1999. The couple have three children and reside in Los Angeles.

Professional Background

In 1989, Amos left NYU film school after being offered a first-look deal with A&M Films, a division of the famed A&M Records label. Frustrated with seeing his screenplay projects languish, Amos began songwriting and played in a series of Los Angeles bands. His first song, “Angel in Black,” was placed in the Miramax film The Prophecy during this time. The 1992 Los Angeles riots had a profound impact on Amos and his work, leaving him questioning his own racial identity. This was manifested in Amos’ alter ego, Whitey McFearsun. Amos performed and recorded under this name and persona during the second half of the decade.

Amos began producing record projects after a stint at Motown’s publishing division, Jobette Music. He went to work at Rhino Entertainment’s A&R department in 1997. While there he produced the Grammy nominated historical box set Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words from the Harlem Renaissance which explored Amos’ newfound passion for early 20th century African-American history. This fascination led to a companion project of sorts, Amos’ own Harlem album released in 2000.

In 2001, Amos was asked to produce Quincy Jones career overview Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones. While working on the box set, Jones asked him to run his Listen Up Foundation as Executive Director. Amos spent the next year working on housing and economic development in Africa, speaking at the World Economic Forum and building homes in Durban, South Africa as part of Habitat for Humanity’s Jimmy Carter Work Project.

Amos returned to songwriting and recording a year later, releasing his 2002 album In Between. In 2003, he was recruited by Rhino co-founders Richard Foos, Garson Foos and Bob Emmer to oversee the A&R department of their newly formed entertainment company, Shout! Factory. The label released his Thank You Shirl-ee May album and his song “Vicious Circle” from Harlem was sung by label mate Solomon Burke on his Nashville. Coincidentally, Amos’ father was Solomon Burke’s agent in the 1960s when his worked as the William Morris Agency’s first-ever African-American talent agent. Burke is also the godfather of the younger Amos’s children.

2005-2006 was a prolific period for Amos. During this time, he performed his version of “Southern Man” (Harlem) alongside Joan Wasser in Hal Willner’s live concert tribute to Neil Young at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. BET aired a documentary of Shawn’s Shirl-ee May album which told the story of his mother’s life. Amos also conceived and co-produced a remake of the Marvin Gaye album What’s Going On performed by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (Marvin Gaye was an initial investor in Wally Amos’ Famous Amos company). Amos also conceived and executive produced a remix album of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ Whipped Cream and Other Delights. On March 16, 2006, Amos joined with Alpert and Ozomatli for a performance of “Love Potion No. 9” on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Amos left Shout! Factory in 2007 to create content for its newly formed sister company, GetBack.com. One of his last Shout! Factory projects was an African tribute album to U2 entitled In The Name Of Love: Africa Celebrates U2. At GetBack, Amos serves as Vice President of Content, editor-in-chief of their website, GetBack.com and producer their original content, including the daily web show Retro Minute, which he also hosts. Retro Minute is syndicated on the MSN and Hulu online networks.

Discography

HarlemReleased 2000

In BetweenReleased 2002

Thank You Shirl-ee MayReleased September 13, 2005

Production Credits

[http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=SHAWN|AMOS&sql=11:3jfqxqtjldhe~T4 AllMusic.com]

References

Los Angeles Times

National Public Radio

External links

* [http://www.shawnamos.com Official Website]
* [http://www.getback.com GetBack.com]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=SHAWN|AMOS&sql=11:3jfqxqtjldhe~T4 AllMusic.com]
*imdb|1923237