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.

Shawn was once notorious for the trouble he caused. He was the kind of kid most people had written off as hopeless. Nowadays he's recognized instead for his ingratiating and disarming transparency and for his sparse, eloquent, laid-back musical stylings. Shawn's story is a moving testimony of abandonment, despair, hope and redemption. His songs are a sophisticated blend of organic instrumentation, such as nylon guitar, cello, violin, and harp, mixed with hip-hop sensibilities and a passionate flowing lyric.

Expressing his insatiable hunger and thirst for God, the lyrics on his major label debut, Simply Nothing, reveal a personal maturity of belief that prefers a hard truth over a feel-good lie. Shawn consistently refuses the easy way out in life, art, or theology. Instead, hope, redemption and worship are discovered in the context of real searching, struggling, questioning, and pain.