Local Blues/Rock Woman Puts on “Black Mascara” for 2nd CD Release
(Little Rock, AR- September 15, 2008) – Little Rock’s own, Shannon Boshears and her band, will host the release of her 2nd CD, “Black Mascara” on Saturday, Nov. 8 at Cajun’s Wharf. A follow-up to her 2001 release of “Chicksinger”, Boshears continues to explore her southern roots on this sophomore effort.
“I’m very inspired by the south and all the area that surrounds me here. I tend to draw on it a lot for my writing,” Boshears explains. Born and raised in Little Rock, AR, she grew up in an area infused with blues, country, rock and gospel. It’s all of these genres of music that are found on “Black Mascara”. “All of that music is the same to me, really. It’s such a fine line – even though they may sound different, they each produce the same effect. I get the same feeling from blues music that I do from gospel – it’s a yearning for something else, something that no person or thing can satisfy in me.”
“This record is a great representation of me and my band. When I recorded “Chicksinger”, I wasn’t playing regularly with a band and that record was pieced together with lots of different players over a long period of time”. For the past eight years, Boshears has worked with the same band members – Charlie Macom on drums, Lori Stidham on bass and vocals, and Walter K. on guitar. “Actually, Walter and I have played together for 18 years now. I think it’s a very rare thing to find band members who’ve been together that long. And I consider myself extremely lucky.” Other musicians featured on the record are Mark Sallings of The Famous Unknowns on saxophone and harmonica, Matt Dickson on saxophone and Becky Haynes on African djembe drum.
“Black Mascara” runs the musical gamut with 11 original tracks. From the opening “Left at Lula”, a funky, blues trip featuring the town Lula, MS to the country honk song “The Honeymoon is Over”. “I’ve tried not to write songs that lean towards country, but this record definitely explores that alt country genre. The more I play and write songs, the more it feels very natural to me to.”
The title track, “Black Mascara” is a straight forward rockin’ portrait of a “New Orleans Lady”. “I just loved the sound of the words together – “black mascara” – and pretty much, I just wrote a song around that hook.” Two other tracks on the CD are more gospel oriented, “Good Guitar” and “Meet My Maker”. One of the lines in “Good Guitar” – “six strings and my savior are all I need to get by” is a great example of some of the twists and humor that Boshears likes to work into her songs. “I like to have a good time when I play music. It’s a great release for me. So, I tend to write more upbeat, frolicking songs more than serious, meditative ones. Those are hard to get to go over in a live setting. People will definitely get to rock out with this record!”
“Black Mascara” was recorded over a year of time between Jason Tedford’s “Wolfman Studios” in Little Rock and Boshears’ home studio. “Jason and I worked together on Chicksinger and it was a great working relationship. We’ve both gotten a lot better at the recording process so this experience was a lot easier than the first.”
Boshears’ “Chicksinger” included the song “If Anybody Asks You (Callin’) that was picked up by the Joey Lauren Adams film, “Come Early Morning” which starred Ashley Judd. A soundtrack was also released to the movie that featured Boshears alongside musical veterans such as Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Emmylou Harris and Merle Haggard.
Boshears has been playing music in Little Rock since the late 1980’s and made her living solely by music during most of that time. Now, by day, Boshears is Marketing Director at Heifer Foundation, but still plays somewhere in Central Arkansas on most weekends.
“Black Mascara” will be available on CD at all her live shows and also can be purchased or downloaded from her Web site at www.shannonboshears.com after Nov. 8. Proceeds from the CD sales at the release party will be donated to Hope Equity at www.hopeequity.org – an online philanthropy tool created by Heifer Foundation to help relieve hunger and poverty and care for the Earth.
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