New Girl on the Block

Say hello to Shannon Brackett

It's difficult to get a read on Shannon Brackett. On the one hand, she does seem prone to a certain overblown sense of self-importance and can be name-droppy. That's an interesting choice for a musician who is mainly self-taught and who has, thus far, played exactly one show in Santa Fe. On the other hand, however, if you can cut through the fluff and focus on her absolutely gorgeous voice and conscious decision to avoid covers (almost always)—not to mention a recent signing deal with Kentucky imprint Sona Blast Records—one might argue she has earned that right.

But let's back up a little to New Year's Eve. In the midst of a drunken journey that was meant to include the majority of downtown but wound up including only two bars, my friends and I, along with the entirety of the overcrowded Cowgirl, found ourselves utterly silenced and humbled by an opening performance from Brackett and her partner, Raven & the Sparrow's Jennifer Peterson. It was whisper-quiet and moving; tenderly emotional, yet powerful and accessible. The vocal harmonies alone would have sold it, but the musicianship was absolutely top-notch, and for one of the only times I can recall, nobody at a show in the corner of a Santa Fe restaurant was speaking over the music. Phenomenal.

"I can be a love song gal, sure, but I also love a bit of grit," Brackett says to me from across the bustling community table at Whole Foods. "I sometimes describe my style as a gravel road paved with velvet, but I'm not very cerebral about it, though, and I work from the heart and soul; there is this deep place that leaves me feeling very vulnerable, and I like that."

These are kind of strong words from a woman who openly admits to an almost debilitating case of stage fright. For years, Brackett would only perform at house parties at her home in Austin, Texas, which she describes as "legendary hootenannies." It's hard for her to put herself out there on the stage to this day, but she owns it and now channels that impending sense of dread into her songwriting and performance styles. Part of it is thanks to a major surgery she received some years ago that gave her a new outlook on going for it, part of it was being an adopted child who tracked down and subsequently befriended her birth mother (an event that also opened her eyes to New Mexico thanks, in part, to the beauty of the Taos area), part of it was a yearlong road trip with a guitar, a ukulele and a suitcase.

"I was always so distraught over how scared I'd get, but after the surgery, I just said, 'Fuck it, what do I have to lose?'"

The culmination of these experiences has led to her current project as a singer-songwriter and an opening slot for Austin singer-songwriter Wendy Colonna on June 13 at Skylight.

"I wouldn't know what to compare [my songs] to, but I think I have interesting lyrics," she says. "There are jazz progressions, some of it is kind of like folk, but some of it is like rock—I think it's diverse, and not every song sounds the same."

Brackett will be joined by müShi Trio's Ross Hamlin on upright bass, but for some of the event, she'll appear solo, just her and a guitar.

In the meantime, Brackett is still trying to put together a full band. Certainly her talent ought to help with that. If nothing else, it is so refreshing to discover a musician who eschews the cover song and manages to stay on top of original output.

"I have found that songs come to me when I'm out on the highway," Brackett says wistfully. "Maybe I'm just a little ADD, but there is something about that hypnotic feeling that comes from traveling and watching the road and the landscape fly by that I love."

Shannon Brackett
7 pm Saturday, June 13. $12-$15
Skylight,
139 W San Francisco St.,
982-0775


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