Joan Shelley – Bandwidth

Joan Shelley: Tiny Desk Concert

Bob Boilen — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 10:52:40 +0000

As technology rules the sound of the day, it’s good to be reminded how powerfully a single voice can transmit deep emotion. Joan Shelley made one of the most beautiful records of the year with just her voice and two guitars. Over and Even has roots in British folk, the sort made popular by artists like Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention in the late ’60s and early ’70s — another time when the dominant music was filled with electricity and texture. The intertwined melodies Shelley and her guitar partner Nathan Salsburg (who’s had his own Tiny Desk Concert) produce are refreshing breaths of Kentucky air in a world of compressed drums and overly processed vocals. This one is near and dear to my heart.

Over and Even is available now. (iTunes) (Amazon)

Set List

“Easy Now”
“Stay On My Shore”
“Not Over By Half”

Credits

Producers: Bob Boilen, Morgan Walker; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Morgan Walker, Lani Milton; photo by Lani Milton/NPR

For more Tiny Desk Concerts subscribe to our podcast.

Review: Joan Shelley, ‘Over And Even’

Katie Presley — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 23:03:00 +0000

If Kentucky folk singer and guitarist Joan Shelley had written the stories of her second album, Over and Even, for a book instead, its cover would be the forest green of middle Appalachia, and its edges would be worn. Her voice is milky and smooth, but her songs are aged and made wise by their lyrical weight. From the best of her genre she’s inherited the illusory ability to write songs that sound ancient and unimpeachably true. So there would be no first edition of her book — it would arrive well-loved.

A thousand prior readings would be discernible in its pages, just as Appalachian and Celtic folk traditions are discernible in Shelley’s lilting voice, backed by Will Oldham and Glen Dentinger, and in the rambling, ebullient guitar she plays alongside Nathan Salsburg. Over and Even doesn’t branch into uncharted territory subject-wise, but Shelley writes the sort of relatable, cleareyed poetry about landscapes both physical and emotional that Joni Mitchell made shine on Blue and Ladies of the Canyon. While Shelley’s trills are more Emerald Isle than Golden Coast, “Over and Even” is a gorgeous dead ringer in both sound and style.

A book by Shelley would be as rooted in its surroundings as this album is. It would have rivers running through it, and birds sketched at the end of every chapter. Over and Even, the album, is traditional folk music as true as it comes despite being captured in the here and now. These are songs for any place and time, today or 50 years from now. This is a book for re-reading and then handing down.

Joan Shelley On Mountain Stage

NPR Staff — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 15:11:00 +0000

Joan Shelley appears on Mountain Stage, recorded live in Charleston, W.Va. A native of Louisville, Ky., the singer-songwriter has been compared to the likes of Nick Drake and fellow Kentuckian Jim James. Her latest album is last year’s moody, languid, country-inflected Electric Ursa.

For her Mountain Stage debut, Shelley is joined onstage by Sean Johnson on drums, bassist John Pedigo and Daniel Dorft on keyboards.

SET LIST

“Rising Air”
“Easy Now”
“First Of August”
“Easy Now”