Shawn Mullins

Singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins defies a cut-and-dried definition. Influenced by everybody from the Violent Femmes and James Taylor to contemporaries like the Indigo Girls (whose co-founder, Amy Ray, attended Clarkston High School in Georgia with Mullins), the folk rocker maintains a homey pop vibe throughout his albums but doesn’t feel compelled to stay inside the lines in a live setting. Although known for his catchy adult-contemporary songs like the Grammy-nominated “Lullaby,” which topped the U.S. charts in 1998, Mullins has donated ditties to TV soundtracks, too. His song “All in My Head” is featured on Scrubs, and he landed a song called “Shimmer” on the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack. Currently touring in support of his new album Honeydew (Vanguard), Mullins will probably pull out some covers for his performances, too, and they could be anything from “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham! to Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road.”