Truckstop Souvenir
The songwriting duo of Dennis James and Lauryn Shapter was born out of a chance meeting in December of 2002. Old-school country music junkies, the two share an undying passion for music that matters, as well as a profound respect for life and all its myriad emotions, stories, and characters. They began melding their sound into what would eventually become Truckstop Souvenir, drawing inspiration from the rural American landscape and the open road, as well as from the musicians who traveled the highways and back roads before them.
When Lauryn first joined Dennis on stage in early 2003, both they and the audience sensed there was magic in this paring. The sparse fiddle accompaniment to songs of love, redemption, despair, and hope was only the beginning. Over the course of time, Dennis and Lauryn have honed their harmony singing to blend seamlessly as one voice. Their divergent musical backgrounds and influences -- Dennis a self-taught musician steeped in the Texas school of songwriting, Lauryn formally trained and enamored with the Scots-Irish tradition of Appalachian ballads -- have come together to create a sound that, while paying homage to their roots, is uniquely theirs.
In September, 2006, they moved to southeast Iowa, quickly settled in, then hit the road and spent most of 2007 touring in support of “Leave Nothing Behind”, their critically acclaimed debut album. Along the way, a new collection of songs began to take shape and in late 2007, they began recording again. “Under a Big Blue Sky”, was recorded in their attic-turned-recording studio, during quiet moments stolen in between the frequent coal trains on the Burlington Northern line at the edge of town. The songs on the album are a reflection of both the roads that led Dennis and Lauryn to Iowa and the life they found when they arrived.
Truckstop Souvenir’s live performances feature sparse but powerful arrangements of two acoustic instruments and harmony vocals, creating a sound that is at once familiar to old time country and modern Americana. With a broad canvas of original songs and signature versions of a few select covers, Truckstop Souvenir takes the listener on a journey along roads less traveled. A slice of the American landscape that often yields the best of keepsakes, Truckstop Souvenir is pure and honest music, music with a rare intimacy that cuts right to the heart of what it means to be human.
Truckstop Souvenir: two voices, two acoustic instruments, and songs that are best taken straight up, no chaser.