The lovely and talented Shannon Whitworth and her band are playing tonight at Salida Cafe, 8:00…hope to see you there! A rootsy singer-songwriter, Whitworth released her solo debut back in 2007.
Waters run deep in Shannon Whitworth’s soul. A daughter of South Carolina’s low country, it’s to the water that she returns when she needs respite from the wearisome world. So it’s understandable the theme of water surfaces in her songs so often; these are women who run, women who hope, women who love the wrong man, and when true love is present, women who return. They are Water Bound.
The first thing that you notice about Shannon Whitworth is the voice—smoky, elegant, a bit husky, patient at all the right moments and equally adept at the phrasing of a jazz chanteuse; it’s no wonder she’s garnered comparisons to singers from Patsy Cline to Billie Holiday, as well as contemporaries like Neko Case.
Then you realize what a stunning songsmith she is. In “Can’t Look In Your Eyes,” Whitworth conjures the dark heart that is at the root of much of the music of Appalachians, but her juxtaposition of the violent lyrical theme with her languid delivery, leaves the listener feeling the protagonist’s devastating resignation to her fate. The second track on Water Bound is the hopeful “Spring Is Here,” in which Whitworth writes about the rebirth of life and hope after a moribund winter. “It’s really more about an emotional state than anything. I knew someone that had Seasonal Affective Disorder, and it is a postcard of hope to them.” “Mermaid Song” explores the idea of two lovers that are failing to connect and uses the metaphor of a woman that is literally water bound (“I’m in the water/Out at sea, And you’re on a mountain/Looking for me”).
This is an album that’s also about the blues—sometimes explicitly so, as on the spookily sad centerpiece, “I Got the Blues”—but elsewhere more covertly; Whitworth’s voice chrysalises the grief and naked desire of her lyrics, every bit as expressive an instrument as the mournful slide guitar in “Taking it Hard,” while several songs reference lyin’, devilish men—a reversal of the old “devil woman” trope that’s informed many a blues song.
Shannon began recording in 2009 with producer Neilson Hubbard to see what might come of it. She immediately found a match, and they kept recording until Water Bound was a vision realized. “When I listen to the how the album begins,” Whitworth says in reference to the musical opening of the layered and meditative “Run To Roll On Home”, “it reminds me of a spring coming up from the ground. That was Neilson’s idea.”
Shannon Whitworth was born in Virginia, but moved to South Carolina almost immediately after birth. Her father was an educator and a music lover. He and her mother filled the Whitworth house with music, and Shannon’s early years echoed with the songs of those that she considers some of the writers who framed her melodic sensibilities: Paul Simon, James Taylor, John Prine and Crosby Stills, Nash & Young. Moving back to Virginia in her teenage years, she was able to plug into the Northern Virginia music scene. She eventually found her way to North Carolina, where she was a founding member of the Biscuit Burners, the bluegrass band that brought her prodigious talents to the attention of the music world. After appearances on the BBC and PBS, Whitworth left the band to pursue a broader musical vision. She released her first solo album No Expectations in 2007. Whitworth has finally settled in North Carolina on a piece of land where three rivers meet.
Water Bound carries with it the promise of heading toward something better—a promise that Shannon Whitworth and her beautiful new album deliver in spades.
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