The BAND
Shannon Slaughter and County Clare is a bluegrass / acoustic country music band that features the award-winning songwriting talents of Shannon Slaughter as well as a cadre of outstanding musicians and singers. Formed in 2010 by Shannon and wife Heather, the band has become a powerful vocal and instrumental force all over the United States as well as Canada. Rooted in bluegrass and traditional acoustic country music, the band's strongest features are the incredible singing talents of Shannon and Heather, soaring harmonies, and the original songwriting of Slaughter, who has garnered numerous Top Ten charted songs and three NUMBER ONE SONGS to his writing credit.
Elite Circuit Recording Artists, Shannon and the band have consistently been at the top of the bluegrass charts with their last 4 recordings; scoring three number 1 and numerous Top Ten songs. This band believes in heartfelt original material and features tight-knit harmonies and superb lyrical instrumentation.
Shannon Slaughter and County Clare consists of Shannon on guitar and vocals, Heather Slaughter on acoustic bass, mandolin and vocals, Ron Inscore on mandolin and vocals, Trevor Watson on banjo and vocals, Owen Piatt on banjo and vocals, Matt Wingate on mandolin, guitar and vocals. This band packs quite a strong punch! We hope you enjoy the site and we really hope to see you at a show soon!
What They're Saying ....
FROM BLUEGRASS UNLIMITED MAGAZINE
SHANNON SLAUGHTER
NEVER STANDING STILL
Elite Circuit Records
ECR-0004
If you’re in the market for a bluegrass album that flows with a gentle ease and smooth vocals, look no further than the latest from Shannon Slaughter. While there are a couple tracks that fall outside that “gentle and smooth” description (a fairly torrid cover of Merle Haggard’s “Movin’ On” and a bluesy duet with Shannon’s wife Heather on “Better Move It On Home”), it’s a style that suits Slaughter well and results in arguably his best album to date...... READ MORE HERE
FROM COUNTRY STANDARD TIME MAGAZINE --
"The cover shows Shannon Slaughter, carrying a guitar case, walking down the centerline of an old country road. To the casual observer this may seem like a traditional shot coming from a country boy, and it is, but really it is much more than that. The picture is a representation of the line the Alabama artist walks between bluegrass and country music.
Slaughter, formerly a member of the Lonesome River Band, often toes the centerline, keeping a fine balance between country and bluegrass sounds, other times he starts to swerve. "Lonely Trail of Tears" and "I Was A Farmer" are firmly planted on the bluegrass side of the road while others, like "Trying To Be My Own Man," trade out Trevor Watson's banjo roll for a Doug Jernigan steel guitar ride that takes things to the other side of the yellow line."
Read the rest of Devin Adams review HERE
"On Never Standing Still, his second solo project, Shannon Slaughter weds trad 'grass to Randy Travis-style country, his baritone vocals sometimes uncannily akin to the onetime superstar's. Nothing wrong with that; Travis was and is a hell of a singer, and you must be blessed with muscular pipes to get anywhere near that level of artistry.
Most of the 15 numbers are co-writes, the best of them (notably the powerful opener, "You Can't Outrun the River," composed with luminaries Tim Stafford and Ronnie Bowman) as good as any new bluegrass tunes recorded recently. The musicianship is first-rate. Heather Slaughter proves a perfect singing partner on the duet "Better Move It on Home," written by Ray Griff., and on "Dying to Live Again" she takes the lead impressively. On the hard-core honkytonker "Trying To Be My Own Man" Slaughter drops in steel guitar and piano, leading one to wonder why this sort of sound, which used to be the soul of country, has gone silent in Nashville studios."
~~~ Jerome Clark (Rambles.Net)
