Sammy Kershaw
b 24 February 1958, Kaplan, Louisiana, USA. He is related to Doug Kershaw and hence, there is a strong cajun feel in his work. Among his other influences are Cal Smith and Mel Street. Sammy Kershaw started playing country clubs when he was 12 years old, working with local musician J.B. Perry. During his eight years with Perry, they opened for George Jones and Ray Charles. (Years later he would duet with Jones on Never Bit A Bullet Like This.) He joined a local band, Blackwater, but, after a few years, decided to leave the industry and help design shops for the Wal-Mart Corporation. Some of his early tracks were released in the USA in 1993 on a MTE album, SAMMY KERSHAW, that was designed to look like his current product. He was encouraged back into music with a contract with Mercury Records in 1990. Kershaw had his first country hit with Cadillac Style and ended up as spokesman for their 1992 sales campaign. He courted controversy when he recorded National Working Women's Holiday but he is well able to deal with hecklers, having once been a stand-up comic. He topped the US country charts with She Don't Know She's Beautiful in 1993. He has been married three times and says, 'I'm a ballad-singing fool and I've lived all those songs at one time or another.'