Shawn Amos

As a musician and lyricist, Shawn has proven to be an astute social critic, observer, and musical chameleon. His two singles released in 2007 demonstrate this versatility. “Burned” (featuring Matthew Sweet) is pure power pop with a thinly veiled message about the epidemic of corruption. Its accompanying video recalls the vintage early MTV-era. Shawn's second '07 single, "Long Time Gone" (sung with alt-country legend Julie Miller) finds him at the other end of the musical spectrum, delivering a spare moody, backwoods country song. His song “Vicious Circle” was covered by Solomon Burke for his Grammy-nominated 2006 album, Nashville, and his song "Sugarsweet" is heard every week as teh them to the web program, PopVision. Shawn's 2005 CD release, Thank You Shir-lee May [A Love Story], was his third and most personal album. Thank You Shirl-ee May is a tribute to and exploration of the life of his late mother, singer Shirlee Ellis Amos (known professionally as Shirl-ee May). Shawn has also released two albums independently, Harlem (2000) and In Between (2002) and has contributed songs to various films.As a producer and executive, Shawn Amos has juggled history and pop culture across a wide range of CD, DVD and box set releases. At Shout! Factory, where he sits as Vice President of Music & Original Content, Shawn has directed projects for artists ranging from William Shatner to Solomon Burke to Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs. Along with He’s also been entrusted with the legacies of icons such as Herb Alpert, John Lee Hooker (for whom Shawn produced his first-ever career spanning box set), and Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Shawn also recently co-produced rock legend Darlene Love's first-ever Christams album. In 2006, conceived and co-produced a remake of the Marvin Gaye classic What’s Going On for New Orleans’ legendary Dirty Dozen Brass Band. He has produced and directed stand-up comedy DVDs (including Pablo Francisco and Doug Stanhope) and executive produced the Solomon Burke & Friends concert for HD Net.Prior to joining Shout! Factory, Shawn worked as an A&R executive at Rhino Records where he produced or co-produced already classic African American historic compilations, including the GRAMMY®-nominated Rhapsodies in Black: Music And Words From The Harlem Renaissance; Say It Loud: A Celebration of Black Music in America; and Q: The Musical Autobiography of Quincy Jones.