Wilshire

Wilshire consists of the singer/songwriter pairing Micah and Lori Wilshire. Their partnership took shape in the early 1990s after Micah struck up a friendship with Lori following one of her shows. Both were then based in Nashville and discovered a mutual appreciation for the Beatles alongside classic soul, which led to an instant rapport.

Micah Wilshire spent his childhood in Virginia and began performing with bands by the age of ten. He joined his first group alongside his father, also a singer/songwriter, and took up the drums. Once he finished high school he departed for Nashville. Lori, originally from Houston, was enrolled in vocal performance studies at Belmont College in Nashville at the moment she and Micah encountered each other. They married in 1995. By that point the pair had adopted the name Wilshire and committed to music as their sole occupation.

Michael W. Smith responded so strongly to the rich harmonies of Micah and Lori Wilshire that he recruited them as backing vocalists on his album I'll Lead You Home. Soon afterward they accompanied Smith on worldwide tours, sharpening their stage abilities in the process. In 1998 the couple stepped away from work as supporting artists to pursue an independent path. Their self-titled debut arrived that year, followed by Second Story in 2000. Seeking a fresh setting, they severed ties with Nashville and relocated to Los Angeles in 2001, drawn by its coastal climate. There they secured a contract with Columbia and developed a new musical direction while taking on supplementary roles such as film extras. The results of this shift surfaced on their Sony Music debut New Universe, released in October 2003.