Nola grew up in the Midwest (Ohio/Iowa) before heading to Boston, Massachusetts where she attended the Berklee College of Music and received her Bachelor of Music with a degree in Music Production & Engineering. While in Boston she sang in several bands ranging from jazz, soul, rock and country and even performed for Bill Clinton & John Kerry. Her most successful endeavor was the creation of ‘Nola Rose & The Thorns’, an award-winning country band who released a CD of original material titled ‘Thought I Heard An Angel.’ Material from the CD has been used on TV shows ‘Touched By An Angel’, ‘All My Children’, ‘Maggie Winters’, ‘JAG’ and most recently, 3 more songs on ‘One Life To Live in November 07. Now in Nashville, she has sung on many songwriter demos and has several album credits including background vocals on Americana artist, Mary Gauthier’s debut album, Dixie Kitchen. Nola sang lead vocals on the soundtrack of independent film, ‘You Don’t Know Dick’ which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival as well as performing the national anthem live on ESPN for NHL team, the Nashville Predators. Nola's very first professional gig many moons ago was with her musician father, Bill Shepherd's big band and in 2003, she performed on her father's album, 'Ballroom Memories' which led to an invitation back home to Iowa in 2004 and 2006 where she performed with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony for their Christmas Pops concerts. She currently resides in Nashville where she continues to write and perform.
