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Reviews
"Shannon Wurst-- Sunday Pie" January 2008 Issue Bluegrass Unlimited
Shannon Wurst is an intriguing new voice from western North Carolina. With a sweet mountain twang reminiscent of Dolly Parton, she has made a strong debut album. Bookended by covers of a couple of traditional classics, "Wild Bill Jones" and "Bright Morning Stars," she has managed to find a body of songs that are strong, distinctive, unique to her, and totally suited to her singing and delivery.
Most of the songs come from Ronnie Wurst or Ernie Hill, evoking small town story songs and lives lived hard, but true. The former's "One Horse Town" is an especially moving love song. She also wrote three herself, including the brash and playful "Patsy Montana" and the haunting "Cash On The Barrelhead." Each track is supported by just the right instrumental touches, with particular kudos to fiddler Eamon McLoughlin and mandolinist Stan D'Aubin.
When someone comes out of nowhere, relatively speaking, and produces an album in which the most negative criticism to be found is that the typeface is hard to read, it's a credit to her talent and preparation. If there's any justice in this musical world, you'll be hearing a lot more of Shannon Wurst. (emailed for address, www.shannonwurst.com.)HK
"Sunday Pie" by Shannon Wurst
reviewed by Emily Kaitz
The cover of Shannon Wurst's debut CD "Sunday Pie" displays a sepia-tone photo of the young singer/guitarist wearing a gingham dress and cowboy boots, sitting on a porch swing and holding what appears to be a freshly-baked pie. Along with the accompanying lettering in a font reminiscent of "Wanted" posters from the days of Jesse James and Pretty Boy
Floyd, the album has an old-fashioned look that suggests wholesome, down-home music, evocative of bygone days and a simpler, rural lifestyle. And the songs on "Sunday Pie" live up to that description.
The 12 cuts include 3 traditional tunes, 3 of Shannon's originals, and other songs penned by friends and family members, many of whom appear on the CD as harmony singers or backup musicians. There is some variation of style and
instrumentation from song to song, encompassing the musical genres of bluegrass, old-timey, swing, country blues and gospel, but the overall sound is traditional, as if the CD had been recorded 40 or more years ago rather than just recently. The songs' lyrics focus on traditional themes as well - families, hard work in the fields, mills and coal mines, broken hearts. Additionally, two of Shannon's musical heroes are alluded to in her swingy ode to Patsy Montana and songwriter Ryan Crider's biographical tribute to Hank Williams.
Shannon credits her flat-picking guitarist stepfather Ed Carr with being a big influence over the years, bringing other musicians over to the house for regular picking sessions when she was growing up, and taking the family to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, as well as other musical gatherings. Carr plays and sings on 8 of the tracks on "Sunday Pie" and provided guidance and support for the entire project.
Like Shannon Wurst and Ed Carr, many of the accompanying musicians on the CD hail from the Ft. Smith/Alma area, including Dennis West on bass, Ernie Hill (who also wrote 2 of the songs) on harmony vocals, and even blues wizard Chris Cameron playing slide guitar and electric bass on Shannon's song "Big Papa." Shannon's father Ronnie Wurst sings on one song (and wrote 2 of them), and local mandolinist extraordinaire, Outside The Lines' Stan D'Aubin, appears on 5 cuts. And Shannon was thrilled to have Nashville fiddler Eamon McLoughlin of the Greencards play on 5 songs.
Shannon's lilting girlish voice has a quality all its own, somewhere between the vulnerability of 1960s and 70s recording artist Brenda Lee, and the unadorned freshness of Fayetteville's own Donna Stjerna of the folk duo Still On The Hill. At times fragile, at times masterful, 26-year-old Shannon effortlessly soars and blends with veteran backup musician of twice her age and experience.
My favorite of Shannon's original tunes is the plaintive mountain ballad "Cash On The Barrelhead" (which sounds nothing like the well-known bluegrass song of the same title). This song, told from the perspective of a bootlegger's daughter, tells the story of how her father turned to making moonshine to keep the family out of the poorhouse.
Cash on the barrelhead
We were selling 'shine to keep our family fed
Moonlight and white lightning kept our lives real exciting
Cash on that barrelhead.
The song begins with D'Aubin and Carr echoing licks on mandolin and guitar in a minor scale, a haunting leitmotif which recurs throughout the ballad. A mournful solo by Fiddlin' Jim Vincent completes the picture.
With such a strong first album, Shannon likely is headed for a long and glorious performing and recording career. Pick up a copy of "Sunday Pie" at Sound Warehouse in Fayetteville or from Shannon's website, shannonwurst.com.
Shannon will be appearing at Jose's on Dickson Street Tuesday July 24 as the special guest of featured artists The Ozone Players, and will be performing on their breaks between 7-11 pm. She also often appears at Jose's on Monday nights sitting in with Charliehorse.
“Shannon has an extraordinary and unique voice. Powerful and sweet, she brings the songs to life through honest and heartfelt delivery. Her debut
CD is beautifully arranged with great original songs complimented by several covers she tastefully interprets. I've listened to the album again and again and it'll be in my player for a long time. The only thing better than the
album is to see her live.”
-Jeff and Vida Band
"Shannon has a strong voice, with a great tone to it. She is a fresh sound
to the music industry!"
-Steve Dilling
, IIIrd Time Out
"Undoubtedly Ms. Wurst is on her way to extend the path of women in bluegrass
in her own sugar-sweet style. Few people have the ability to write great
songs, and even fewer have the ability to write songs that sound as if they
must have been born from the earth. But once in a while a musician comes
along with the ability to simultaneously tap into the sky’s third eye and
the roots of the ground and achieve a high-lonesome sound that makes even
the most cynical listener’s heart beat with rhythm. Shannon’s songwriting is
quickly heading this direction."
-Brian Swenk, Boss Hawg
"Shannon Wurst music contains the best qualities of purity and tone now
rarely heard in traditional American folk and roots music. Her voice has the
simple mountain purity of Mabelle Carter and Dolly Parton, yet her songs
have a serious, timeless, yet hopeful, edge that shines through the apparent
sadness and fear driven clouds of our darker modern times."
-Jeff Mosier, Blueground Undergrass
"Shannon's style is a mix of young creative and old fashioned talent that
translates into truly top level music. There is not a stage she won't shine
on and she will, no doubt, have you and the crowd asking for more."
-Matt Johnson, Boone Saloon, Boone, North Carolina