Shannon McNally is experiencing wanderlust. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows her roots are firmly planted in sweet, soulful music more than the place she currently calls home.

The 36-year-old singer-songwriter who was born and raised on Long Island (you’d never know it by her husky, Southern drawl) is taking her acoustic guitar and glorious voice back on the road again – and into the recording studio with her band – after some periods of inactivity.

“It’s always nice to be working,” McNally related in a recent e-mail. “I love the road.”

A brief run through Colorado recently included a July 18 solo acoustic show at The Walnut Room in Denver. Hidden in a back room behind a restaurant, the intimate setting (capacity: 200) is where lovers of folky, earthier songs with an emphasis on the authentic written word take their music seriously.

Of course, it’s also nice to get out of the house again during the summer when you live in northern Mississippi, where the swarming mosquitoes, sweltering heat, and stifling humidity can make life miserable even for a deep-down Deep Southerner.

In mentioning what a delightful time she had in Salida, a small Colorado town southwest of Denver on the way to Telluride, McNally said, “It’s like yoga studios and coffee shops for days! You have to understand, in this little, tiny town I live in, we have neither of them. There’s nothing.”

Except the bugs, which she said are so enormous, “They name them people names, like Fred and Mary.”

Yet, despite living in the Bible Belt (“I think there’s more churches than there are houses,” she offered), life in a small southern town is good for McNally and her family, who she jokingly refers to as “heathens from New Orleans that washed up there from Hurricane Katrina.”

It’s a long way from her days singing “Bury My Heart On The Jersey Shore,” one of the stellar tracks off her 2002 debut, Jukebox Sparrows. McNally was on a major label (Capitol), becoming a darling of critics (Rolling Stone gave the album 3 1/2 stars) and AAA radio. She played and recorded with Charlie Sexton, sang with Dr. John, John Hiatt, and Son Volt and toured with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Ryan Adams.

Three full-length albums and three EPs later, McNally’s career is in rebuild mode. This Mississippi Queen seems perfectly content with leaving the fast life behind, basing her resurgence on solid storytelling and a smoky voice that sounds cooler than Loretta Lynn but safer than Shelby Lynne.

Article Author: Michael Bialas

A newspaper editor and former college football player, Michael Bialas makes sports his business but exploring and reviewing music, movies, TV and other forms of pop culture are among the games he enjoys playing now.
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