“So here I am on a stage, and I don’t know why. I’m deathly afraid of being in front of people. When I started playing my songs in front of people five years ago, my knees would shake because I was so freaked out. If I tried to talk I would start crying. So the only thing I could do was sing.”“But God met me in the middle of my weakness and fear. He said, ‘This is the life I have for you, this is where you’re going,’ and I said, ‘Okay God, my life is Yours. Let’s go.’ So here I am.” Shawn McDonald Simply NothingSix years could be a lifetime if you’re Sparrow Recording artist Shawn McDonald.

Six years ago he hadn’t recorded his genre-bending soulish-folk debut, Simply Nothing. He hadn’t had labels like Columbia and Java Records knocking at his door. In fact, six years ago, Shawn McDonald didn’t even play a lick of guitar. He had never taken the stage in a club or a coffee house. He had yet to write his first song.Truth is, six years ago Shawn McDonald was just a desperate, lost kid in Eugene, Oregon, who grew up too quickly without his parents in his life, and who was now full of rage, and staring down the barrel of nine felony charges for possessing, growing, manufacturing and dealing marijuana, LSD, crank and a host of other controlled substances.Not that you’d ever guess.“I can’t communicate how crazy I was,” Shawn says. “Who I was then and who I am now is like night and day. You name the drug and I was selling it and doing it.

I was a confused kid, and my confusion boiled up into bitterness and anger. My life had become a hard, closed shell. I was extremely rebellious, miserable, and lost. What God has done in my life in the last six years is amazing.”Shawn was once notorious for the trouble he caused.