[3] Shirey started experimenting with found sound composition and extended instrument techniques when asked to compose music for Ohio University's modern dance department[citation needed].

[9] His 2010 solo album Sonic New York, Huffington Post wrote that "the collection of 17 pieces range from chanted poetry to raw blues to ghostly choirs to folk songs to a postmodern dance track and more.

[citation needed] One of his live performances at the time,[11] which often feature Shirey recruiting audience members to assist with instruments,[12] Huffington Post wrote "every noise wrung out of a piece of cheap plastic or kazoo or run through his complicated amplification, stood on its own and had something authentic to say about sound and its resonance with the human nervous system.

[citation needed] He scored five silent films such as "A Trip to the Moon" by Georges Méliès in collaboration with The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.

Hour of Charm regularly occurs in New York City, usually at Joe's Pub, but has been taken on the road to the American Repertory Theatre,[2] the Rothbury Music Festival[16] and other venues.

[citation needed] Shirey has toured Ireland and Wales as a duo, "Sxip and Rhi" with Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

A sample of Neil and Sxip playing it features at the beginning of Shirey's former Gentlemen & Assassins bandmate Elyas Khan's single, "Bells".