Jaclyn Shaw was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in January 1984 and raised in Staten Island, New York. Since an early age, she showed an interest for the arts. At age 5, Jaclyn, unaware of musical notation, attempted to create her own with a serious of dots and lines. Though she wasn't taught the traditional methods of song writing and reading music till later in life, she always had a creative edge in interpreting sound in her youth.
As a teen, Jaclyn sang in various cover bands on the Island, including "Peepshow" and "Sister Venus." By her early twenties, she decided that it would be more fulfilling to write original music. In spring 2004, she developed a song-writing technique for a pop rock duo band called "Pulse" with guitarist Joe Pereira. And in 2006, she evolved a unique style and progressed in her musicianship on her classical acoustic guitar. After merely two months of teaching herself finger-picking styles and scales, she composed her first work, "The String that Keeps you Straight." Not too long after, she joined forces with Joe Salerno of Dream Factory Studios and recorded the song with some added bass and drum accompaniment.
From the first time she performed her song live with session workers at The Cup, a popular coffee shop on Staten Island, Jaclyn has been rapidly developing her song list and writing technique. The release of this song got her recognition from cafes and lounges in the Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Manhattan area. During the summer of 2006, she worked with percussionist Pete Neyro, enhancing the highly rhythmic quality of her writing, and bassist Pinky Mendez, embellishing melodic texture of her complex compositions. Jaclyn has played at such commendable Manhattan venues as Rockwood Music Hall and The Knitting Factory.
The release of her new record, High Strung, will be in 2008. On the album is an eclectic mix of styles -- which spans genres such as folk, classical, rock and jazz. The songs are rich in lyrical content, and offer creative, yet realistic, messages about the individual, society, and the interaction between the two. Mostly inspired by her experience in developing her talent at such a rapid pace in the midst of an ever-changing, unpredictable world, the sound she creates can be described as ephemeral tunes over rhythmic streaming.