2016 30A Songwriters Festival: Shawn Mullins
As the snow started to fall in Upstate New York, the Folk Alley and BeeHive crews headed south to the 2016 30A Songwriters Festival along the Emerald Coast in Florida. The festival, which presented hundreds of performances by the best in the business, offered Folk Alley the opportunity to create intimate recordings of top folk and Americana artists.
Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Shawn Mullins has been thinking a lot about love. All of the songs on ‘My Stupid Heart’ have something to do with some kind of love – of one person, of one country, of one another. While at the 30A Songwriters Festival, Mullins took some time to tell Folk Alley about the new collection and play a few songs – inspired by the unrest in Ferguson, the failure of his “latest” marriage, and zombies – for the cameras.
Whether composing alone or with others, Atlanta native Mullins has always been a dynamic songsmith. Forging influences from folk and R&B to traditional country with pop-leaning melodic sensibilities, he crafts memorable, affecting tunes best defined as Americana. An encounter with Amy Ray from the Indigo Girls during a career-class talk on the music industry prompted him to major in music. After college and a stint in the Army Reserves, Mullins released ‘Soul’s Core’ on his own label. The album went platinum thanks to the success of the single “Lullaby,” which also earned him a Grammy nomination.
