Shannon Wright
In ten years, this shy and emotional american woman became as known as the more famous indie rock artists and she can't be ignored by the specialized press which stopped to compare her to PJ Harvey and Bjork. Her strong character, her refusal of everything's fashioned, her integrity always made her run away from the cliche. She have had a perfect progression since her first album Flight Safety, released in 1999. But she still develops her discography, keeping a coherence.
After four first albums, Shannon Wright decided to stop exploring her rage and anguish to care about the real life, which brought a bit of light she leaves filter through Let in the Light. We can enjoy on it Shannon playing a lively piano, as best as Yann Tiersen's, her friend and partner since they met in 2004 for the recording of a melodious shared album.
In 2009, with Honeybee Girls, Shannon Wright faces up to her taboos : acoustics and electronics. Piano, organ, guitars, violoncello with indistinct tones allow to feel freedom and freshness. Thanks to her fans and the pleasure she can feel on stage, she follows nearly immediately on Secret Blood with her loyal partners, Andy Baker (bass, sound recording and mix) and Brant Rackley (drums). The title is extracted from one of the most beautiful songs of the album "Merciful Secret blood of a Noble Man": the one she opens up the most. A voice more self-confident, the specific tone of the organ, soft rhythmics are not the only ones to give this feeling of quenching and diffuse warmth.
Secret Blood is a promise of freedom, the most important thing in her career. She does not pay any attention to people who label her. This ninth album is the perfect illustration of her freedom, alternating short songs, folk, noise, lullabies for adults.
There is a reason for the presence of a Black Flag record on the cover. Shannon Wright has always claimed this legacy to a rock without compromise, at least by her tone, perfectly exact and sometimes rough. By the songs too : "Fractured" allows to rediscover Washington Hardcore, "Commoner's Saint" and its strong guitars, or the hypnotic "Violent Colors". But Shannon Wright makes you feel a hypersensitivity as well, with "On The Riverside", "Dim Reader" or "Satellites". We can feel other prooves of youthful energy all through Secret Blood ; whereas the delicate arrangements of "Under the Luminaries" are emblematic of the total control of a complicated artist of great integrity.
