Shane Cooley

Shane Cooley is a Virginia singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer whose music has always been difficult to contain inside a single genre. Americana and folk may provide the foundation, but Cooley has spent nearly two decades wandering freely through folk rock, alternative music, roots music, psychedelia, pop, and whatever other sounds a particular song seems to demand. At the center of it all is his songwriting: observant, imaginative, sometimes dark, sometimes playful, and deeply interested in the strange details that make ordinary lives worth writing about.

Cooley’s catalog is remarkably deep. His 2020 project 50 Songs collected fifty original solo recordings, while 2022’s Forest turned inward with a haunting, self-produced collection incorporating the natural sounds surrounding his Virginia home. His work has taken him from Virginia to Austin and back again, through solo performances, bands and collaborations, and onto stages ranging from intimate house concerts to festivals. His songs have also found radio audiences well beyond Virginia, with airplay across the United States and internationally.

His newest chapter feels particularly close to home. The 2025 Rappahannock EP, created with Adrian H. Z. Kunzmann and Fritz Ferrato and featuring guest vocalist Lori Ellen, grew from a few days of writing and recording at Cooleyland Recording. Inspired by the river Shane calls home, the six-song collaboration connects Virginia Americana with friendships stretching all the way to Germany. It’s a fitting snapshot of an artist who has never stopped moving forward: still writing, still collaborating, still experimenting, and still finding new songs hiding in familiar places.