Today we’d like to introduce you to Celia Shacklett.
Hi Celia, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, let’s briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in a very small town in Western Kansas called Oakley. My mom & dad were teachers in the public school in our town – mom taught kindergarten & my dad was the elementary school librarian. In the summer, he performed as part of a group in our region called “The Plains Theatre Guild,” & I got to participate in their yearly melodramas from a very young age. I loved to be a part of & enjoyed seeing these adults – many of them teachers in my school or schools in the region – come together & be creative for the sheer pleasure of it. These were my first experiences with performing & engaging with audiences, & I caught the bug. I performed however I could for the following years as I grew up in my small town. I took on several instruments to play in the school band & never missed an opportunity to perform at school or church. I took as many music lessons as I could & I joined the neighboring town’s community orchestra. I performed for children as their babysitter or as a helper to their teachers in school. When I was 15 years old, I found an old guitar that my brother had played with before he left for college earlier that fall. It was missing a string, but I figured out how to tune it up & immediately went to work, learning the chords of some of the songs I learned at camp. I wanted to lead the sing-along at the youth group. I told my youth group, “The youth group that sings together stays together!” As I began accompanying myself & others for the sing-alongs, I realized this was a perfect vehicle for my desire to perform. Every song is a little act, & I could choose my act & my direction, song by song, & build a performance of my own!
I was about out of high school when I started to open up & perform songs for people. I moved away to Colorado right out of high school for a summer & got my first taste of street performing on Pearl St. in Boulder. This is back in 1994. I got great responses from people – it was terrific to get tips on my guitar case, & feeling like I was connecting with strangers of all kinds was exactly the feedback I had been looking for my whole life. I was hooked. My friends in Colorado got me playing in any place somebody would let me play, & when I went away to college that fall, I kept asking.
My first year of college was a miscalculation, as I wound up in another small town, at a liberal arts school in Kansas, where I’d gotten some scholarship money for theatre. I did have some precious performance opportunities there. I left that school after my first year & decided to do some more exploring. I spent the next year traveling & working (& often not working), playing music as much as possible. I learned songs & jammed with strangers, & played on streets & in small clubs & coffee shops from coast to coast. I loved making friends through music. After my year off from college, I returned to Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas. I didn’t know why I was attending college, but I wanted to be in Lawrence. I worked through school & I enjoyed my part-time jobs. But my best job was playing on Tuesday nights in a brewery downtown. I kept that job for a few years & developed a small but devoted following, &, more importantly, discovered that I could make music for a living! Because of my brewery gig, I was often called upon to sing at other venues & community events. I was playing at a festival outside of Lawrence in 1999 or 2000. At that time, it was the fashion to hire someone to play between rock band sets at festivals – this person was called the “tweener.” I was the “tweener” at a festival called Omega & a promoter from St. Louis came to scout me for his upcoming festivals. He hired me for some festivals the next summer & introduced me to many people in St. Louis who would become friends & supporters. I visited St. Louis a few times over the next several months & met radio personalities, club owners, friends, & fans, & played many of St. Louis’ stages during that time. I moved to St. Louis in January of 2001 & began taking any gigs that came my way. I worked part-time over the years but finally quit doing other wage work (that wasn’t performance-related) in 2006. I met many people & played in many bands. I have met thousands of friends & fans in St. Louis & beyond. I have toured with several different groups in many configurations over the years.
Some of the ongoing projects are:
- Celia, my solo act, a sing-along dance party for all ages (from the beginning)
- Celia’s Yuletide Express, a community holiday sing-along band (2024 will be our 20th year)
- FOOT BEAT, a sing-along marching band (began in 2008 as part of the People’s Joy Parade on Cherokee Street during the annual Cinco de Mayo festival)
- FIRE DOG, a rock n roll power trio, sometimes plays kids’ music (18+ years)
- Sweet & Low, a guitar duo, standards & popular favorites (began in Lawrence, 20+ years)
- KG lang, a womxn’s folk rock tribute act (5 or 6 years)
- Queen Kiddo, a newly formed original indie rock act (last summer!) & more
I also do other performance projects, like my yearly Jesus Christ Superstar Shadow Puppet Spectacular. I work for St. Louis’ own Circus Flora as a pre-show performer on the midway during the yearly run, & with Clowns on Call as a hospital clown. I teach music lessons to adults & children year-round, & in the summer, I play for the Summer Reading Club in public libraries across the region with my kid’s show, “Celia’s Sing-Along Dance Party.” I get called on to play for community & municipal events, birthday parties, weddings, funerals, bars, coffee shops, restaurants, community centers, nursing homes & other municipal facilities, schools, & all kinds of places where people congregate. I get to make music every day. I’ve made 3 albums of original music of my own & have recorded with many artists. I love what I do & I love my life. Making friends through music has always been my motivation & I love my community & my place in it.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It seems amazingly smooth in hindsight. I spent plenty of time struggling along the way, but I never went hungry. I never got robbed or beat up. When all my gigs were canceled in 2020, I thought I might have to go in a different direction, but at the behest of some fans & friends, I began playing 3 shows a week out of my living room on Facebook Live. Would you believe it – I put money in the bank in 2020 & 2021 despite a global pandemic! My friends & fans have been incredibly supportive of me throughout the years. When I first started in St. Louis, I met a performer who had been playing much longer than me. He came over to my place one day to jam & he gave me some counsel that shaped my career. He said, “Play every chance you get. That’s your job security. You’ll be taken care of as long as you’re playing.” Seems right to me. I want to keep playing.
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work is for the community. I am not the best singer or guitar player by a long shot. But people love what I do because they feel included in it. I am a familiar presence in their world & it is for fun. It is for playing together. What sets me apart is how I include my audience in my performance.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check?
I am loving the new Barbra Streisand memoir! I love music. I listen & learn all the time. I love teaching music, too. I love teaching people how to enjoy playing music. YouTube & Spotify are invaluable resources for learning more about music.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.celiaisrock.com
- Instagram: /celiashock
- Facebook: /celiashackattack
- Youtube: /celialater
