Shilah Morrow

Author and creator of Sin City Social Club The daughter of television actress Heather Woodruff and folk singer Steven Morrow (who met when they toured Vietnam together in a USO-formed folk trio), Shilah Morrow was raised in the Topanga Canyon artist community, where songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Don Henley and Jackson Browne created the 1970s Southern California sound. Shilah Morrow was having a nice career in the corporate world, working her way up to product development manager for the giant Warner Elektra Atlantic record group. And then Atlantic signed the Bottle Rockets, the scruffy alt-country trail-blazers from Festus, Mo., and Morrow decided that this was the kind of earthy music she wanted to work with. Morrow eventually traded the company credit card for a business card that identified her as the owner of Sin City Social Club, an independent music marketing business that concentrates on Austin Americana acts such as Shurman, Jesse Dayton and Ruby James. Sin City promotions include sampler CDs, live events and an active online community. "With the Bottle Rockets, I heard the kind of music I was raised on — that Flying Burrito Brothers, Buffalo Springfield, Allman Brothers stuff. They took me back to my roots." A native of Los Angeles, Morrow moved Sin City to Austin, Texas in June 2007, following her friend-since-high-school Polly Parsons, who happens to be Gram's daughter. Sin City established itself in L.A. by hosting the monthly Sweethearts of the Rodeo shows at Molly Malone's from 2001 to 2006. Morrow and Parsons also co-produced a 2004 Gram Parsons tribute concert at the Universal Amphitheater that featured such acts as Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Norah Jones, Keith Richards and Dwight Yoakam.