NOLA Radio: Hear selected tracks from Amanda Shaw's latest release, Pretty Runs Out.
One indication that Amanda Shaw has arrived: The same Web site that maintained a countdown to the Olsen twins' 18th birthday is also trailing her march toward adulthood.
"A fan told me about this, and I didn't believe it, " Shaw said this calendar week, laughing. "I thought it was kind of funny. And they're off by a calendar month -- they're counting down to September 2."
Her existent 18th birthday is August 2, and she intends to spend it where she is most at home: On a stage, specifically that of the Mid-City Lanes Rock 'n' Bowl.
Her birthday party is also a benefit for Voice of the Wetlands, the nonprofit founded by Houma guitarist Tab Benoit to advocate for coastal restoration. Shaw asterisked alongside Benoit in "Hurricane on the Bayou, " the 2006 IMAX film that chronicled the fragile province of Louisiana's wetlands. (That film is still playing at the Entergy IMAX Theatre at the Aquarium of the Americas on Canal Street.)
Joining Shaw and her striation, the Cute Guys, on Aug. 2 are such guests as Benoit, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Marva Wright and Rockin' Dopsie Jr. Event sponsors Valero and Dow are compensable the musicians; door issue go to Voice of the Wetlands.
"It's always cool to party with a purpose, " Shaw said. "It's my birthday, but it's not really just around that. It's about getting people to come out and rear awareness approximately the wetlands. It's not political -- it's about us, as a community, helping ourselves."
Shaw's 18th birthday also simon Marks her 10th year as a professional musician. As a runty, fiddle-wielding dynamo, she defined precocious. Young fans encountered on the local fete circuit idolized her.
Now she is transitioning to adult performer. After a pair of independent albums, she released "Pretty Runs Out, " her home debut, via Rounder Records early this year. She and veteran soldier Rounder producer Scott Billington spent two years inquisitory for material appropriate for a teen singer inactive maturing personally and professionally.
"That's why it took us a spell to make the record, " Shaw aforementioned. "When you're that years, you're ever-changing so much. Not only when was I having to find myself as a person, but I was finding myself in my music as well. It represented the different voices that I was victimisation at that time."
Her influences include No Doubt-era Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines and the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde. Shaw also admires Loretta Lynn and June Carter. "They were country and really sweet, simply they had attitude, also. They were ahead of their sentence. I like a slight attitude."
For "Pretty Runs Out, " she co-wrote songs with Anders Osborne, Shannon McNally, Jim McCormick and her own band, but too covered workings by Jack Johnson and pop songstress Diane Warren.
She also recasts traditional Cajun jigs and reels to maintain her connection to Louisiana. "This is my home, " Shaw said. "It's so practically a portion of me that I want to make it part of my music. I'm so fortunate to be part of this wonderful music scene here. We can be free-enterprise and still work in concert. We're really like one family portion each other out."
Shaw has made sacrifices to be part of that musicians' community. Flying around the country to promote "Hurricane on the Bayou" left little time for school. She left hand Mount Carmel Academy in 2007 after her junior year, and recently earned her Louisiana general equivalency diploma. She plans to enroll at Tulane University next spring to study marketing.
Meanwhile, she seems to be everyplace. This season, she experient her commencement Hornets game as the courtside guest of Jazzfest producer Quint Davis. During NBA All-star weekend, she sang the national anthem at the rookie game and spent time celebrity-watching at the Loews Hotel with her grandfather, uncle and parents.
Recent out-of-town appearances include headlining a fete in Florida and opening for "American Idol" graduate Bo Bice at B.B. King's club in New York City and area singer Kelly Willis in Virginia.
Unlike some teenagers, Shaw is close to her parents. She lives with them on the magnetic north shore, and depends on them: She may be able to vote as of this weekend, just still doesn't have a driver's license.
"I've been very lazy more or less it, " Shaw said. "And I'm looking at the gas prices and I'm like, 'That's way less shoes that I tin can buy.' "
At 18, it's all about priorities.
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AMANDA SHAW & THE CUTE GUYS
What: Shaw's 18th birthday party and a benefit for Voice of the Wetlands
With: Tab Benoit, Marva Wright, Irvin Mayfield, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Jumpin' Johnny Sansone and more.
When: Saturday, Aug. 2, 9 p.m.
Where: Mid-City Lanes, 4133 S. Carrollton Ave., 504.482.3133
Tickets: $10 at the door.
To hear music from Amanda Shaw's "Pretty Runs Out, " go to www.nola.com/music
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