When Rees Shad began his musical journey with his 1994 release, Anderson, Ohio, critics called him a “wordsmith to watch.” It’s a reputation the remarkably prolific and eclectic singer-songwriter and storyteller has proudly cultivated. Shad now boasts a catalog of over 30 albums, each of which reflect an unyielding combination of emotion and expression that has become his hallmark. His 2023 album, 6 Strings and a Story, looks back on selected songs from his catalog, all revisited in stripped down solo acoustic settings that American Songwriter hailed as “a superb sampling of the skill and savvy that have been a hallmark of Shad’s career from the very beginning.”