Shannon Hurley

Shannon Hurley (b. South Bend, November 3, 1973 - ) – Songwriter, composer, and keyboard player. South Bend native Shannon Hurley learned to play the piano and trombone while growing up in South Bend and then moved to Colorado Springs during high school. As a student at the University of Colorado, Hurley studied with Patrick Leonard, who wrote several pop hits for Madonna. At Boulder’s Fox Theatre, Hurley worked as stage manager for various touring artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, and Julian Lennon. In 2001, she moved to Los Angeles in the interest of forwarding her career as a singer-songwriter. After releasing a 5-song EP with her husband Ben Eisen, she founded Don’t Call Us Tori in 2004, a showcase for up and coming songwriters who pattern themselves—at least somewhat—after Tori Amos. In the same year, she started touring as a back-up singer and keyboardist with Universal/Motown artist Brei Larson, with whom she appears on the video “She Said” and the Nickelodeon show All That. During a 2005 tour with Larson’s band, Hurley had the opportunity of opening for Jesse McCartney, Gwen Stefani, and Black Eyed Peas. In 2007, she released her first full-length album Wake Up, which she promoted through a national tour. On the strength of her EP "Sunrise" (see below), Rolling Stone Magazine included her group in a list of twenty-five top bands on MySpace in 2006. Starting in 2010, Hurley starting singing Trance Music and has continued to record singles (over fifteen to date) in that genre. See "Voice in the Crowd" below.