I’ve had lunch with Neil Simon, dinner with Yoko Ono (okay, so there were about twelve of us).  I once celebrated Easter Sunday at Timothy Leary’s where I sat next to him chatting, unknowingly eating salad dressing that had been laced with LSD.  I met Bob Dylan in the mid-eighties and in the fall of 1987 joined his entourage on a two-month European Tour with Tom Petty--which included a pre-tour trip to Egypt. 

I should write a book.  I have.  I intend to publish it later this year, or never.   

Britta Lee Shain was born with a transistor radio in one hand and a pen in the other.  Her mother was a professional singer and actress whose singing credits included Radio City Music Hall.  Her uncle, a noted Brill Building songwriter and music publisher, sent her the latest 45rpm records hot off the press.  At six, she began playing classical and popular piano.  At twenty, a James Taylor concert at the Troubadour (with opening act Carole King) inspired her to buy her first guitar. Coming of age in the late 60’s and spending pivotal years in both Berkeley and Los Angeles, her early musical tastes were edgy and varied:  Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.  In the 1990’s she studied creative writing for seven years with famed author of City of Night and Penn Lifetime Achievement Award Winner John Rechy.  After trying her hand at screenwriting, novel writing and even writing a memoir about her travels with a rock and roll band, in 2001 she turned her creative energy to songwriting.

Dubbed “a female Tom Waits” by Linda Kordek of the Agency Group, up until her recent solo stint, she could most often be seen performing with the San Diego based band, the Howling Coyotes.  “I'm lucky to have a lot of great musician friends who like to sit in with me from time to time.  I call them my Accidental Posse.”

Britta Lee Shain's first solo CD--Between The River And The Road-- was released in October of 2010.

   Click here to sample some of her tunes!

INFLUENCES:

Lucinda Williams, Eliza Gilkyson, Mary Gauthier, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits.