Anna Shannon - Overland

I was first introduced to Anna Shannon's music when she was the final act at a Loftus Open Acoustic Hiring Fair one sunny Sunday in June 2008 and she had a profound effect on me. I was also lucky enough to video her spot, and captured some wonderful songs, sadly I missed the one song from her new CD "Over Land" that she played that day, A Little Piece Of Africa, as the tape ran out half way through the song. I had to buy this album to find out how the story ended, and that is one thing that Anna does so well, tells stories that are so detailed and real that the songs unfold like films, she tells her stories as though she has lived them herself even though they are set in a world and time far removed from the here and now of most ordinary people, so from that point of view "she" is extraordinary.

A Little Piece Of Africa opens this CD and sweeps in with a grandeur that is quite simply thrilling, telling the story from a child's viewpoint that is emotionally gut wrenching, (I have listened to this song many times and it never fails to effect me) after hearing this song you might need time to recover. The next song up is Frost On The Larch this one will help your recovery, very simple lyrics with a gorgeous melody, one guitar beautifully played (by Mike Silver) and Anna's voice brings the listener back into the world that Anna really inhabits, the North Yorkshire countryside.

Next track Callanish tells of an escaped eagle (Goldie) again, story telling of the highest order wrapped in a beautiful melody.

For the purpose of brevity I am not able to give anymore track by track descriptions so what you need to know is that this collection of songs is beautifully recorded with no electronic instruments, there are some unusual instruments, like the octave fiddle on track 11 (its eerie man) and there are no filler tracks on this album, it falls firmly into folk music if your looking for an easy label, but I prefer the label "English Soul Music" and that soul belongs to a genuine artist who is a master of her craft, so buy it and give it to someone you love.

................BUY ANNAS CDS ONLINE!................
OVER LAND" also available from;
HMV
Play.com
Amazon
and all good record stores.....

ALL OTHERS digitally from - I-Tunes - Napster - HMV Digital -Tesco Entertainment 7 Digital - Rhapsody - eMusic - Nokia - Amazon mp3 - Play.com mp3--- http://www.jmucreate.com/cdshop.

Reviewed by Ian Swinburne (Loftus Open Acoustic) for North East Live   

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