Ariel Abshire

About the Artist

Raised in the "live music capital of the world," eighteen-year-old Ariel Abshire has always been surrounded by great music and the people who make it. She started singing classic hardcore country at honky tonks and dance halls with Texas Music Hall of Famer Alvin Crow at age eleven. For years, Austin's legendary Broken Spoke was Ariel's second home where her talents were nurtured by the likes of Pinetop Perkins, Clifford Antone, Dale Watson, and countless other Austin greats. But Ariel's musical influences are not limited to the country realm. Stepfather, Lance Fever (lead singer for the notable 90s punk/ska band Gals Panic), introduced her to Austin’s alternative scene at an early age and steered his friend Andy Sharp toward producing her debut CD, “Exclamation Love.” This self-penned album of original material was immediately snatched up by San Diego label, Darla Records (My Morning Jacket, Robin Guthrie) and released just after Ariel’s seventeenth birthday. The record made several top ten lists and received critical acclaim from such A-list sources as The Boston Globe, The Austin Chronicle, Exclaim! and Some Velvet Blog. And the live act that followed earned her a spot on The Austin Chronicle’s ‘Top Ten Female Vocalists’ list of 2009. Abshire is currently performing with her band in venues across Texas, and has recently shared the bill with Jerry Jeff Walker, Kellie Pickler, Roger Creager, Robert Earl Keen, Graham Reynold's Golden Arm Trio, etc. Her voice can also be heard on the soundtracks of feature films by Robert Rodriguez and Trevor Romain, numerous video game projects, and an animated cartoon for Adult Swim’s William Street Studios. A second record is in the works.