Mount Shasta Moments Live Thursday at 5:00 pm Pacific
Welcome my guest:
Acclaimed Native American Singer/Songwriter
Shelley Morningsong
The eldest of six children, Shelley Morningsong (Northern Cheyenne) was born on the outskirts of Los Angeles, California. Her parents separated before she was born and she was raised by her Mother and Grandmother.
Shelley comes from a musical family, her Grandmother played piano and was a piano teacher, her Grandfather played the banjo and her Mother played piano and accordion. Shelley grew up singing and playing guitar and at 17 she joined a country rock band called “Hearts of the West” and together they opened up for Charlie Daniels and Juice Newton at the Sweet Water Café in Redondo Bch, Ca. Her musical influences include such great talents as Bonnie Raitt, Rosanne Cash and Old Blues legend Buddy Guy.
Shelley became a Mother at the age of twenty one and eventually had three beautiful children altogether. She dedicated her time to them and put her music on hold until four years ago when her first record “Out of the Ashes” was released by Silver Wave Records out of Boulder, Colorado. In 2007 she won the New Mexico Music Award for “Best Native Contemporary Music”, the Wisconsin Indian Summer Festival for “Classic Rock” and the Native American Music Awards out of New York for “Début Artist of the Year”
Her highly personal yet universal writing style is also manifest in her newest recording called “Full Circle”. Her first album “Out of the Ashes” and newest album for 2010 called “Full Circle” features Grammy Award winning producer Larry Mitchell www.larrymitchell.com who augments Morningsong’s captivating voice with sizzling electric guitar, bass, and drums artfully intertwined with Native percussion, tribal drums, and vocables performed by Shelley’s husband Fabian Fontenelle (Zuni, Omaha) Morningsong adds more magic to the mix performing enchanting lines on Native American flute. The result is a spectacular mix of mainstream and ethnic sounds that deliver pop/blues songs in a way the world has yet to experience. She has been featured in several premier magazine’s such as Cowboys and Indians, Native Peoples and Albuquerque the Magazine.
Shelley resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband Fabian Fontenelle who is a world renowned Men’s Northern Traditional Dancer, Storyteller and Historian.
