Shannon Moore
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As
I strolled down 6th Street in Austin on the last night of the SXSW
Music Festival in '98, I happened to pass by "The Library" where I
was drawn in by the sound of an acoustic guitar. It was late Saturday
night (or early Sunday morning actually) and most venues were winding
down, but this rocker chick in flashy pants was just getting started.
Shannon
Moore was her name and she played a half-hour set that put the perfect
cap on an awesome weekend of live music. One song I fell in love with
immediately was "Fucked Up." I bought a cassette from her, which she had
recorded in Vancouver with Deep Julia – her band at the time.
About a year and a half later in late '99, I was flipping through the music listings, and saw her name as the opener for Animal Liberation Orchestra at Mick's Lounge. Without hesitation, I headed up to Mick's to catch her set. She was performing solo again that night, and had both an acoustic and an electric guitar with her. For a solo performer, she pulled off some notable dynamics, both on guitar and vocals. She would play some quiet strumming parts, and then with little warning she'd start to really rock out. In fact, this woman IS rock and roll – sort of a cross between Chrissie Hind and Led Zeppelin.
I recognized a lot of the songs at Mick’s from the cassette. But since I saw her last, she re-recorded all of the Deep Julia songs with a new band and released a CD on Farren Music America under her own name. While I was only mildly impressed overall by the cassette, I am extremely impressed with the new CD. I thought that her earlier versions of the songs had evoked a mood that was almost depressing, but she's polished the tunes up and given them a brand new energy.
Shannon has had a fair bit success throughout her career. She wrote songs for a TV drama, opened for Jewel, and was even signed to Sony at one time. Shannon has talked of moving up from LA to SF, but for now there’s still limited chances to see her perform. The next opportunity is Wednesday, March 8th, upstairs at Paradise Lounge. She’ll have a kick-ass band that made their debut with her at Hotel Utah in February. After Wednesday, she’s not scheduled to be back in the area until July.
And downstairs at Paradise Lounge on Wednesday evenings is a relatively new music series called "The Stretch". I’ve been to two performances of the Stretch so far, and the music that’s gets booked is some of the best in city. So up or down Wednesday night, you can’t go wrong.
Steve Cefaratti
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