Terry Shinall was born on August 1, 1959 in Lepanto Arkansas. He is the youngest of the 3 children of Grady and Louise Shinall. The Shinall family were sharecroppers in Lepanto before moving to Memphis Tennessee when Terry Shinall was around 5 to 6 years old. They settled in North Memphis and lived on a street called Mill Street. They eventually moved into one of the projects in North Memphis called Hurt Village which at that point in time was located right down the street from Mill Street. Terry started to take guitar lessons at Pilate Music Center which was located on Summer Ave in Memphis.
Terry enrolled in college in 1978 at Shelby State Community College and started to study music. He later enrolled in the University of Memphis which at that time was called Memphis State. He earned a B.A. in music at the University of Memphis. In the late 1980's and early 1990's he played in piano bars around Memphis in which he played solo piano. He also began playing on the cable public access
station in Memphis with a show called the Terry Shinall Show. His music is played today on internet radio and his music is posted for sale at stores such as cdbaby, spotify, apple, itunes and you tube.