About Jean Shy
Hometown
Chicago, IL, United States
Genre
Christian
Jean Shy is a contemporary blues singer with a traditional bent who nevertheless incorporates elements of modern technology into her music, notably adding synthesizers to her recordings. A native of Chicago, Shy grew up singing gospel music, inspired by Mahalia Jackson and Elvis Presley. When she was just 12 years old, she signed to Chess and the label had their act Tim & Jean record her song "Spring Fever," which turned into a local hit. Once she left high school in 1970, she signed to Brunswick Records as a recording act -- she previously released a 45 called "I Looked in My Pocketbook" for the indie Starville prior to signing with Chess -- and began to play locally.
Shy began her recording career in 1970 with "Keep an Eye" on Darak Records, a subsidiary of Brunswick. The label released "I'll Belong to You" in 1972, and four years later she cut "Roller Derby World" for Fantasy. "Speak! Talk All About It" appeared on Playboy Records in 1977, but Shy didn't get national attention until RSO released "Night Dancer" in 1979. She kept touring and recording through the early '80s, carving out a following in Germany -- she released the "Layla/Do the Locomotion" single on that country's branch of Polydor in 1979 -- and other European countries as she slowly gravitated from soul to blues.
Her 1984 album Tough Enough -- originally released on Record Shack -- debuted her supporting band, the Shy Guys, and the record helped establish her as a bankable quantity on the soul-blues circuit. King Edward Records, which was run by Shy's family friend Edward Wright and served as her label for many years, released Ready for Love in 1993, after which she sang for the Dutch act T-Spoon; she appeared on the tracks "Where R U Now" and a cover of Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz." Next up were two gospel albums: 1999's Amazing Grace and One Day, which arrived in 2005.
In 2008, Jean Shy & the Shy Guys released The Blues Got Soul, an album that was popular enough to earn her nominations at the 2009 Blues Music Awards. In 2010, Shy released Blow Top Blues, which was credited to Jean Shy & Friends; it was nominated for Blues Album of the Year by the Independent Music Awards in 2010. In 2015, she released the album The Other Side of Blue, which was a collaboration with Jbbo. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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