Shana Morrison, Jen Chapin

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Nathan James Leatherman

Jen Chapin

The daughters of celebrated musicians Van Morrison and the late Harry Chapin have serious chops of their own. The artists will perform their own sets and have said that each show will be somewhat fresh from the one before. Chapin made a name for herself covering Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic.” She named her son Van. Watch for their set list to include picks from their father’s catalogs.

A Benefit for Wisconsin Parkinson Association

Tickets: $35.00

media release: Singers Shana Morrison and Jen Chapin will perform three concerts during the first week of March this year to benefit the Wisconsin Parkinson Foundation. The mini tour will take place March 3, 4 and 5 with shows hosted in Milwaukee at Shank Hall, Oshkosh at The Grand Oshkosh and Madison at the Barrymore Theatre.

Morrison, whose father is Van Morrison and Chapin, daughter of the late Harry Chapin, have blazed their own trails in the music business. Morrison’s roots-inflected vocal style is more straight-ahead pop/rock than her father’s. Chapin’s jazz-inflected story songs explore community and shared meaning. Both artists have released multiple, critically-acclaimed albums of their own music – five for Morrison, and ten for Chapin.

Morrison will be playing with singer/songwriter and producer Kim McLean. Chapin will perform with her husband, a Grammy-nominated acoustic bassist Stephan Crump, as well as guitarist Jamie Fox, who is described as an “unflappable melodist” by the New York Times.

Shank Hall and Alternative Concert Group founder Peter Jest put together the benefit mini tour to honor Steve Mandelman, who gave 17-year-old Peter his first job in the music business.

“Without Steve inviting me to his house after I called him, there would be no Alternative Concert Group or Shank Hall,” said Jest. “When Steve was afflicted with Parkinson’s, I wanted to do what I could. The sooner we find a cure, the better. Steve promoted many shows with Harry Chapin, so in his honor I wanted to present these shows, featuring Jen and a favorite of mine, Shana Morrison.”

Parkinson’s Disease is a neurodegenerative and chronic movement disorder affecting nearly one million people in the US and more than six million worldwide. While onset can occur at any age, 80 percent of those diagnosed are 60 or older.  It is chronic and progressive but does not affect life expectancy; there is no cure. The goal of treatment is to alleviate symptoms, prevent injury and maximize quality of life.

Jen Chapin’s music is urban folk soul — story songs that search for community and shared meaning, powered by the funk and improvisation of the city. Critics have hailed her work as “brilliant.. soulfully poetic” (NPR), “thoughtful … worth-savoring” (People), “addictive” (Boston Globe), “smart, observant, lyrically deft, politically aware and emotionally intuitive” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

JazzTimes has called her “a first-rate storyteller” while Relix regards her as “one of the freshest voices singing today.” Jen has been featured on “Late Nite with Conan O’Brien”, NPR’s Mountain Stage and WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, Sirius Satellite’s The Loft with Mike Marrone and Mary Sue Twohy’s The Village, been honored by the USA Songwriting Competition, has performed on stage with Bruce Springsteen, and has opened up for Bruce Hornsby, Smokey Robinson, and the Neville Brothers..

Her performances are powerful, spotlighting the world-class musicianship and rare chemistry of Grammy-nominated acoustic bassist/husband Stephan Crump and “unflappable melodist” (New York Times) guitarist Jamie Fox…….

When people learn that singer/songwriter Shana Morrison is Van Morrison’s adult daughter, the first thing they want to know is how much she has been influenced by her father. Van Morrison’s writing has influenced his daughter’s work, but not tremendously; Shana’s gritty, bluesy, approach to pop/rock and roots rock actually owes a lot more to female singer/songwriters like Bonnie Raitt and Melissa Etheridge. When Shana’s recordings are playing, one doesn’t think of “Brown-Eyed Girl” or “Moondance” (two of her father’s big hits). One is more likely to think of Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, Patti Rothberg, and some of the other female singer/songwriters who emerged in the ’90s. Nonetheless, Van Morrison did a lot to encourage his daughter’s interest in music. Growing up in the same house as the man who gave us “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile),” Shana was inevitably exposed to a great deal of music: rock, R&B, blues, jazz, and folk, as well as Irish/Celtic music. Unlike her father, she wasn’t born in Belfast, Ireland; she was born in Kingston, NY, on April 7, 1970, and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, Morrison acquired an extensive knowledge of Celtic music thanks to her Irish relatives. When the singer/songwriter reached adulthood, she wasn’t necessarily planning to follow in her father’s footsteps; realizing that only a very small fraction of the people who pursued careers in music would earn a good living at it (let alone enjoy her father’s success), Morrison studied business administration as a graduate student and wanted something outside of music to fall back on. Nonetheless, Morrison did, in fact, end up devoting all of her time to music.