Influenced by the ever changing, ever-circling dark and light around her, Shelley O’Brien is a melancholy poet with an unshakably happy streak.  She’s been a bit of a vagabond, spending months sailing seas, years living in the far east, days traveling on trains through eastern and western Europe, and her songs are full of the subtleties of comings and goings.  She has played in many places: a church in Dawson City, Yukon, The Drake Hotel in Toronto, a mountain top tea-house in Japan, a balcony in Umbria and many more.  Using her toy-box collection of ukulele, casio, melodica and piano to accompany her rained-upon old style voice, she leads us through an abandoned fairground, reads us a whimsical children’s story, and sets us on our way, newfound.

Shelley grew up in a small town on the north west coast of British Columbia and currently lives in Vancouver. Her musical journeys began in Japan, where she wrote her first album, released in Dawson City in 2000.

She continued playing after moving to Toronto, where in 2004 Shelly became the Drake Hotel's first – and as far as she knows, only – regular lounge lizardess.  At the Drake Shelley serenaded patrons with her jazz tunes during cocktail hour.  She has since performed internationally, and many have taken to her voice and charm.  In January 2008, after a long hiatus, Shelley began recording her second album with Vancouver's Matt Rogers.