Shoemaker was born in Joliet, Illinois and attended Joliet Central High School. After graduating in 1983, she moved to Los Angeles and got a job working as a secretary at Capitol Records. She then briefly moved to London where she worked with artist Hugh Harris. On her return to the United States, she began working for producer Daniel Lanois at Kingsway Studios in New Orleans. In 1992 she became the studio’s house engineer. Her break came in 1995 when Sheryl Crow fired her producer and hired Shoemaker to engineer her self-produced, self-titled second album Sheryl Crow. In 1998 Shoemaker became the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album for her work on The Globe Sessions. In addition to Crow, Shoemaker went on to work with artists such as Blues Traveller, Emmylou Harris, the Indigo Girls and the Dixie Chicks.