Pamela Wyn Shannon

Massachusetts-based musician, Pamela Wyn Shannon's inventive and intricate guitar work has been described as "a tiny chamber orchestra working in unison at the end of her hands." She has walked with the legends of British and Irish folk music, garnering respect and admiration wherever she goes. The songs on her new CD, COURTING AUTUMN, have an elliptical quality which creates its own timeframe, rules, and kingdoms, reminiscent of that magic found in UK '60s psyche-folk artifacts.

The songs on her new CD, COURTING AUTUMN, have an elliptical quality which creates its own timeframe, rules, and kingdoms, reminiscent of that magic found in UK '60s psyche-folk artifacts. In August 2007, in advance of the album's release, she performed live on BBC Radio One and played the Green Man Festival in Wales, where the line-up included Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsome, Vashti Bunyan, John Renbourn & Robert Plant. This year she will perform at the Green Man again where two of her greatest influences will also perform (Pentangle, Richard Thompson).

Pamela's new CD, Courting Autumn, which she recorded largely on her own throughout New England, is a rustic almanac of autumnal songs burnished with a melancholy mood, wistful vocals, delicate hand-spun guitar playing, weather-worn and windswept by plaintive string and recorder arrangements.

COURTING AUTUMN VOTED THE TOP 10 BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR: "A MELANCHOLIC AND MYSTIC MASTERWORK. BRILLIANT!?
? HEAVEN MAGAZINE, The Netherlands

"A MOST BEAUTIFUL ALBUM...GENTLE ANDSENSITIVE...
LOVELY AND SLIGHTLY STRANGE ATMOSPHERE...
MADE ME SHIVER...LOVELY, SWEETLY PONGIANT"
- SHIRLEY COLLINS

"AN ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED MASTERPIECE!" - PSYCH VAN HET FOLK, Belgium

"It's not often one can use the terms somber and enchanting in tandem when describing music, but Courting Autumn qualifies...Shannon's guitar playing has rightly been compared to that of Bert Jansch and this album evokes the neo-Renaissance explorations of bands such as Pentangle."
- Sing Out! Magazine

"Enchanting...Pamela's voice is brilliantly complemented by her well-developed guitar playing, which is at the same time deftly intricate and hauntingly full-toned...All told, this is a very special, seriously beautiful album, which also has the measure of a personal artistic statement: one of considerable power, originality and vision."
- fRoots Magazine, U.K.

"THE MAGICAL ?PIPKIN', ONE OF THE FINEST FOLK SONGS YOU WILL EVER HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO HEAR?A TRULY VINTAGE ALBUM THAT ALL TERRASCOPE READERS SHOULD OWN.?
- TERRASCOPE, UK

www.girlhenge.com
www.myspace.com/pamelawynshannon

BACKGROUND:
Pamela Wyn Shannon got something of a "false start" to her music career in the 90s. Her New Jersey rock band grabbed the attention of the great Patti Smith guitarist, Lenny Kaye, who was slated to produce the band's debut. Though they didn't stay together long enough to see it come to fruition, Kaye's interest was a foreshadowing of the attention she would receive in the years to come from many a rock and folk music luminary. But the seeds for Wyn Shannon's intricate folk guitar playing and wistful, timeless voice would really take root when she discovered artists such as Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, the Incredible String band, and a wellspring of traditional Irish folk music.


Shortly after landing an opening slot for Byrds legend, Roger McGuinn, she bought a one way ticket to Ireland where she serendipitously met the Irish folk hero, Johnny Moynihan (Sweeny's Men, Planxty, Silly Sisters) on the second day after her arrival. They became quick friends. Moynihan, seeing in her his old friend Anne Briggs, took her under his wing and together they played around Ireland for a year. When she returned to the US, she made her living as a session player and performed and recorded with musicians from the likes of Solas, Lunasa, Cherish the Ladies, even the Klezmatics, still traveling to and fro across the Atlantic performing on her own, as well.

In 2004 at the Nick Drake Tribute Gathering, she performed to accolades for Robert Kirby, the great British arranger for Nick Drake, she appeared on German television (ASPEKTE's Nick Drake Retrospective), and when asked to open for another British legend, Davy Graham, at Bush Hall in London, he surprised her by turning the tables and doing a part of his set in the opening slot before her. Her 2001 album, Nature's Bride released on her own Girlhenge Records label was recorded to full studio polish and received airplay on the prestigious WFMU, NPR & BBC Radio and others.


Since 2003, Wyn Shannon has lived a largely isolated pastoral life as a caretaker in various estates throughout New England and the United Kingdom. With portable recording equipment, she produced Courting Autumn . Her "studios" included an 18th century borning room & parlor room in a house museum in the Berkshires, a 19th farmhouse and stable, a tool shed, a cow barn, a sheep farm, a Colonial piggery, bathrooms and basements. The album was mixed in Philadelphia by Engineer Brian McTear (Espers, Marissa Nadler), and comes complete with packaging which Pamela hand assembled herself.