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My name is Andrew Shackelford and I have only one passion in my life. My entire life revolves around making music. My parents have always told me to dream big and I've always been a big dreamer ever since I was a little kid. I picked up the guitar when I was 13 years old, and I have been playing ever since. I started to take lessons with a very good guitarist by the name of Jeff Cunningham. He taught me everything that I know, and he gave me the tools to develop my own style. I felt like I learned all of the techniques, scales, and chords that I would enjoy using throughout my entire lifetime. I took the skills that he showed by and started a band and turned professional when I was 17. I started to write songs for my band and we always placed above 3rd place in Battle of the Bands. The band broke up because people wanted to move towards different directions in their life. With music being my passion I stuck with it. I kept writing even though I wasn't playing shows anymore. When I turned 21, I found a new band, Prairie State Heartache, and the coolest thing about this was my cousin was the singer. My cousin and I started writing music together and it started out just for fun, then all of a sudden things really started to take off. We would play on a weekly bases in bars around Springfield, Illinois, and we were fortunate enough to be recognized by Dave Rossi of Columbia Records. He took us under his wing and hooked us up with a producer by the name of Rick Beato, who has worked and co-written with many artists including needtobreath, Shinedown, and Phish. I find it hard to believe that I am so close to pursuing my dream of music. It is a very humbling experience and I feel very blessed that I have been given this chance. Right now we are in the stage of writing a little more songs so we have a full arsenal for when we record in Atlanta with Beato. I wish that I would know how the future would play out after this happens, but nothing in the music industry is certain. All I know is music will always be the main focus of my life. Take a listen to some of our songs at myspace.com/prairiestateheartache and let me know what you think.