SHANNON SHAW BARES HER SOUL

Oakland powerhouse voice lauded by Dan Auerbach channels Dusty In Memphis.

Among imminent releases from Easy Eye Sound, the studio/ label run by Black Key Dan Auerbach, two are set to introduce an explosive female voice to the wider world. Shannon Shaw, from Oakland, California, has made four no-budget albums with her combo Shannon & The Clams, who have been tagged as Etta James meets The Shangri-Las. Auerbach describes them as “the best nowadays-version of girl-group slash garage music I’ve ever heard”. Her journey to music was circuitous, though. “I grew up Mormon,” she says. “It was pretty strict on what we listened to.” As a teen in smalltown Napa, she discovered punk, but the idea of performing came gradually via a series of epiphanies: seeing the trashy girl band in movie Desperate Teenage Love Dolls; finding she could karaoke sing Roy Orbison; “a life-changing break-up” while at art college in Oakland. It all prompted her to unload pain via songwriting, aged 24. After a meeting in San Francisco, Auerbach invited Shaw to Easy Eye in Nashville. On arrival in early 2017, though, she “had a meltdown, just trying to pretend I was OK jamming with celebrities,” especially once he ushered in songwriter Pat McLaughlin, and pianist Bobby Wood, who in the late ’60s backed legends on, among others, From Elvis In Memphis and Dusty In Memphis. Then, she says, “it was like lightning striking me – ‘No, fuck that, you’re here because you have something they don’t have.’ Then this other version of myself bubbled up.” The resultant LP’s title, Shannon In Nashville, gives a tongue-in-cheek nod to those ’60s classics, but it’s similarly packed with epic songs and lavish orchestrations placing her centre-stage. Enthuses Auerbach, “Shannon is able to be soft and heart-breaking, then all of a sudden scream like Glenn Danzig. So I had to be prepared to use that weapon just right.” Both parties were so bowled over that within a few months, Shaw returned to Easy Eye to cut another album with The Clams. So, with this double whammy ready to roll, Shaw’s star is certain to ascend dramatically in 2018. Amid another gale of laughter, the colourful alt-diva-in-waiting confides, “My only plan is, I know I need a better plan.” Give it six months, and all lingering traces of indie under-achievement will be gone. Andrew Perry