SHAWN PRESCOTT HAUSSLER: Taking The Air

Shawn Prescott Haussler

Taking The Air

© 2005 Shawn Prescott Haussler (880336002653)

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An eclectic mix of soulful songs, haunting airs, jazzed-up jigs and a beautiful strathspey with gorgeous fiddle harmonies. Featuring Shawn on voice, flute, high and low whistles, celtic harp, tenor guitar, dumbek and djembe.

notes

Shawn Prescott Haussler

Born and raised in Northern California on the San Francisco Bay peninsula, Shawn began her musical career playing flute in her grammar school band. As a teen, she began singing with a group of folk musicians that would gather at a friend's house, and her love of folk music was born. She began to experiment with various folk traditions, had a very brief affair with the guitar and banjo, but eventually found Celtic music. After taking a rather long break from music as she began a nursing career and started a family (Shawn has 12 year old triplets), she took up music again, adding the tin-whistle to her repertoire (and later, the low whistles as well), and began playing regularly with a group of folk-musicians at a local pub in Half Moon Bay. In 1999, Shawn moved with her family to the Sierra Foothills, near Nevada City, where she met Maggie McKaig and Luke Wilson (among many other fine musicians) and formed the group The Celtic Wonder Band, releasing their CD, Small Wonder, in 2004. Not long after arriving in the foothills, Shawn had laid her hands on a celtic harp for the first time, and deciding she needed to have one, was soon playing harp, and in April of this year, also added the tenor guitar to her growing family of instruments and included it on her CD. While growing up, Shawn was exposed to a great deal of jazz, from her father who loves jazz and played his records constantly, and from her uncle, a jazz musician who plays sax and flute. In her new solo recording, Taking The Air, Shawn has incorporated some jazz elements on several of the cuts by asking her friend John to play his jazz/blues-style guitar while she added some improvisation with her flute and whistles, and by playing freely with rhythms and instrumental breaks. Some of the pieces on the CD are done more simply, in order that the beautiful, timeless melodies be allowed to soar, or that the lyrics of a song be given one's full attention, and others have Shawn doing her own 2 or 3 part harmonies and layering her various instruments over each other. This CD truly has something for everyone.

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  • Taking the Air
    author: Greg Bradshaw

    Wonderfully textured.Vocals are great, lovely voice.The flute is outstanding not to mention the harp. I'm very happy now that I have finally found my music!

  • Marvelous!!
    author: Mark Cantor, Fret and Fiddle, KRCL 90.9fm Salt Lake City

    Wonderful vocals and instrumentals, fresh arrangements but firmly rooted, as they say! Shawn's singing is in the company of many greats, including Susan McKeown and Niamh Parsons. Taking the Air is one of our new favorites

  • Outstanding Recording
    author: Dennis Brunnenmeyer, KVMR-FM "Nevada City Limits"

    I enjoyed every track on this CD. Shawn is a wonderful artist.

  • author: Amy Norman

    Shawn, Your talents are endless and I love that I now have your music in my room, near me, to hear your beautiful voice and musical vibrations of all your ages. Much LOVE!!

  • author: Diane Penn

    I love hearing you sing. The instrumentals are so different from your last CD, I really like these best.

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