southern records

It is a difficult task to put in words proper description of Shannonwright and the music that encompasses her. Not that her music is necessarily indescribable, but as the evolution of the "band bio" has unfolded, any apt or realistic description of an artist has been strewn aside in the prospect of trying to sell a product, image, or idea. Far too many exaggerations and unkept promises are predominantly why most of this sort of "promo" related material goes unread, laying in a trash bin with multitudes of its ilk. In all true candor, this sort of thing is complete bullshit, and it's an arduous venture to convey how passionate I feel about Shannonwright's music without sounding trite or redundant. So with the understanding of this predicament, I will proceed.

Shannonwright originally comes from the artless sprawl of the country's largest city, land mass that is, Jacksonville, FL. Luckily , opposite of it's utter lack of personality, Jacksonville throughout the mid 1980's and early nineties had a thriving all ages scene. Florida is notorious to be a state for bands to bypass, so this existence of punk and independent music was indeed a rare mecca. It is from here that Shannonwright, along with two Jacksonvile friends, formed her first band, Crowsdell. Upon releasing their debut "Dreamette" in 1995 on Big Cat records, the band became a favorite live act throughout Europe while playing with other Big Cat bands as The Dirty Three, Pavement, Blumfeld and Giant Sand. After leaving the hometown tenure of Jacksonville for New York City, and releasing several other records, an ep, "The End of Summer"{1996} and a full length "Within the Curve of an Arm"{1997, Europe only}, the band was dropped as their label merged with a major. It was in this dark clime, that would seem inappropriate to fully discuss in this forum, that Shannon was nearly broken of continuing to write music. She sold nearly everything she owned, and moved from New York to live in a vacant guest "worker's" house on some farm property in North Carolina.

It was here that Shannon wrote, with the aid of a neighbor's piano, the majority of her debut solo album, Flight Safety{1999}. After the embitterment of stereotypical, albeit "standard", music business practices, Shannon found a very fitting home with Quarterstick/Touch and Go records.

Flight Safety is a testament to Shannon's craft as a songwriter. Her selection of notes and minimal settings for the songs are so well constructed and so naturally emanated that it stands beyond genre,trend, time, and especially gender. For the album, Shannon played nearly all the instruments, guitar, bass, piano, strings, drums, keyboards, and ,of course, her instaneously recognizable voice. Only a few friends Sibel Firat, Joey Burns, and Erich Bachman helped fill out the album. Shannon toured constantly throughout the year with Low, Eric Bachman, Will Oldham and Calexico and the record attained critical acclaim and a multitude of press attention.

The new album, Maps of Tacit, is the latest in the Shanonwright saga, and rightfully has its own distinct place in her oeuvre. Where Flight Safety is a monument of Shannon's musical penmanship, Maps of Tacit adds to it an implicitness that forces you to listen. In other words, these songs were molded and lashed out over a hunder shows on the road; they were born in a live setting in rock clubs where plain subtle, quiet music isn't always in comfortable quarters. These songs plead and demand a reticent, attentive audience and scream, or bleed onto themselves when necessary, in order to capture that outlet. What sets Shannon apart from so many songwriters is the sometimes frightening intensity of Shannon playing her music live. These songs convey those dynamics and are unbridled in a ferocious display of heart and spirit.