Linda is a singer-songwriter and pianist who, at 5, drew a keyboard on her father’s shirt cardboard in crayon and composed music to accompany the words on the Statue of Liberty.

Music is at the center of her heart and life. In the early 70s, she performed in Chicago at the first out-lesbian concert in the U.S. Linda toured with her band, Family of Woman, and played solo in bars, clubs, coffee houses, and festivals, including on the main stage at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.

Linda’s songs come from deep in her heart, and she invites you into that heart when she performs in celebration of love, social justice, and the power of authenticity. She and her wife, windflower, are deeply grateful to return home to western Massachusetts after 31 years in Northern California.

Please join us for this concert to benefit the Straw Dog Writers Guild, with music to touch your heart.

Why Linda supports Straw Dog Writers Guild

"I wanted to do a concert that would benefit a local nonprofit organization. We’ve all lived through difficult times before, but I can’t think of a time in my lifetime that is as fraught with threat, danger, and despair. As a songwriter/artist, my songwriting helps me heal and continue to feel."

"Straw Dog supports the writing community in Western Massachusetts through workshops, open mics, writing residencies, WriteAngles conference scholarships, and so much more. What better beneficiary than an organization that is devoted to the work of holding and lifting up our writing community?"

"I attend a Straw Dog Poetry open mic (WNO) each month, and I’m grateful to be in a community of other writers who dare to express their feelings and deeply intimate thoughts. Straw Dog serves the greater community by building a network of writers among us who feel less alone in a time when feeling alone is all around us."

"I am so proud to be working in collaboration with Straw Dog Writers Guild and thrilled they will benefit from the net concert proceeds."

What fans are saying!

“The impact of your two hours of openly, modestly, and warmly talking both about your life and of composing songs about your life, relationships, and times over 50 years, and singing those songs and beautifully playing the music you’ve written to accompany them, particularly in a room filled with friends and fans, was an extraordinary experience for me. The words of your songs are so evocative, meaningful, and poetic.”

~JC

“Linda Shear's music is beyond comparison. Her lyrics, piano composition, and performance are a tightly woven tapestry of joy and pain, beauty and darkness, love and disdain, and so profoundly human. What a gift she has and how magnificently she has honed it."

~Laree Kiely, Former lead singer of the Colorado band Timberline

“They stay with you, these beautiful songs of Linda Shear; the tunes linger, and the lyrics take you places to remember and to emotions, you'll know. And her performances are so compelling. I have often said that if I played the piano, I would want to play it like Linda."

~Dan Crary, Bluegrass guitarist and 2022 awardee of lifetime achievement award from the International Bluegrass Music Association

Linda Shear Concert

A benefit for Straw Dog Writers Guild