Shiny And The Spoon

Called “Perhaps the best folk duo our region has to offer” (The Historic Southgate House), Shiny and the Spoon give off the warmth and intimacy of the likes of Johnny Cash and June Carter, with transcendent vocals and a vibrant acoustic core, complimented by sprinklings of ukulele, guitar, harmonica, and boot-stomping. Their debut and home-recorded EP earned nods from Cincinnati publications such as CityBeat and the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, as well as the renowned UK webzine “Americana UK” who called it “an accomplished debut that does exactly what an EP should, makes you want more of the same.”

Original members Amber Nash and Jordan Neff first met in late 2008, and felt an immediate and easy chemistry. Within a month, they had formed a duo, with Nash on the ukulele, Neff on the guitar, and the both of them trading vocals and complimenting each other with closely-knit harmonies.

Joined in 2011 by veteran Pete Brown on Upright Bass, the trio has quickly moved from house concerts to bandstands, offering new audiences the same unadorned simplicity as before, as though the couches and tables had only been pushed far enough away from the stage to allow a better view. Shiny and the Spoon offers a sound that is at once lilting and unabashed; troubled songs sung lightly and without pretense, marked by “a deep current of romantic skepticism that runs just beneath the calm surface” (Ric Hickey). Nash and Neff paint an unforgiving backdrop of what is, before launching you to what can be. It is this quality, unusual to such young songwriters, that has quickly made Shiny and the Spoon one of the region’s most acclaimed folk acts.

After launching their latest release and first full-length album, “Ferris Wheel,” to a packed audience at the Historic Southgate House, the trio has received a flurry of attention and praise. Produced by John Curley of Ultrasuede Studios, and recorded in numerous locations –from aging shag-lined studios to living rooms and elementary schools- Shiny and the Spoon’s 2011 album “Ferris Wheel” is a stellar and multi-layered work that exhibits a decorated simplicity that continues to garner more and more attention and acclaim from varied audiences and publications.