EARLVILLE – The 2007 season starts with a bang when the Earlville Opera House welcomes the Shawn Camp Band to its main stage with their catchy bluegrass and country sound at 8 p.m. on Saturday. Shawn Camp has worked with the who’s who of country music, writing for everyone from Garth Brooks to Josh Turner to Brooks and Dunn.  His newest album, Fireball, showcases him as a triple threat:  singer, songwriter, and musician.

A native of Arkansas, Shawn Camp grew up surrounded by music and got his start as a fiddle-player.  At the age of 20, he moved to Nashville to play with the Osborne Brothers, which led to a string of tours with everyone from the Burch Sisters to Jerry Reed, Alan Jackson, Suzy Bogguss, and Trisha Yearwood.  He developed into a songwriter and the singer title just followed naturally.  “I think it just evolved from having to perform them in order for somebody to hear them.” 

His talent as a songwriter rocketed him to fame in Nashville and his list of songs recorded by major country stars grew, including the No.1 hit by Garth Brooks in 1997, “Two Pina Coladas.”  In 1991, he finally recorded his own songs in his own voice with Lucky Silver Dollar on his own Skeeterbit Records label.  His second album was cut, Live At the Station Inn, which Camp followed up with performances at Colorado’s Rockygrass festival, the Northwest String Summit, and the World of Bluegrass convention.