Shanley Del

Her mother had a teacher called Mr. Shanley. He liked the name of a millionaire racehorse owner called Delwyn Miller. They combined their inspiration and called their fifth child Shanley Del. Growing up in New Zealand Shanley's mother only ever listened to classical music on the radio. Her father sang Marty Robbins songs around the house. The Morris family finally acquired a record player when she was 13, and thanks to the influences of her four older sisters and two younger brothers Shanley added Motown, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Anne Murray and Steely Dan to her musical upbringing. She began her own career in music as a 14 year old soprano in the New Zealand Youth Choir. She moved from that to membership of the Waltons, a New Zealand 10 piece country bar band and the rock/pop groups Gigolo and Chrome Safari. She performed with a band, The Waltons, for several years before moving to Australia in 1991, the last of the seven siblings to make the journey.

Her sister Jenny Morris had already made the journey and had become one of Australia's most popular female singers and invited Shanley across to sing background vocals for her, not realizing that her younger sister was thinking about a change in her music career. When Jenny's call came Shanley had just completed a demo tape in an 8 track studio of a song called Together Alone which she was intending to hawk around New Zealand in search of a record contract. Packing her bags now Shanley debated whether to take her demo tape along. At the last minute she threw it into her bag. The tape won her a record contract with Roo Art. It was Jenny Morris who suggested that Shanley aim at the burgeoning Australian country market. She arrived in Australia a sole parent, with one year old son Max.

One of her early releases was the single 'Funnel Of Love'. In 1994 she released her first album, 'What's A Heartache For', recorded in Nashville. In 1995 Shanley recorded an album with Australian country contemporaries Jane Saunders and Genni Kane titled 'Tea For Three'. They had first worked together on Jane Saunder's album 'Stranger To Your Heart' on the song 'Lonely Blue Heart'. A record executive liked the song so much she wanted a whole album from the trio. The album included a new version of Shanley's hit 'Red Roses'. The trio did not tour but did perform together at special events and on television to promote the album. In 1997, three years after her first solo album, Shanley released 'My Own Sweet Time'. Like the first album, Shanley had written many of the songs, once again travelling to Nashville to team up with writers there. With a change in rules for offshore recordings the album won Shanley a Golden Guitar in Tamworth and the ARIA Award for Best Country Album.

During 2000 Shanley spent time writing songs and in November began recording her new album, in Australia this time, and an album which clearly was moving away from country to more mainstream pop. In recognition of the change she shortened her name to just Shanley.