Genre:Folk
There are two things Shawnee does best: finger pick and play your heart strings. In January, Texas Music Magazine named Shawnee the #1 pick of "Singer-Songwriters of Distinction," and also named her latest solo release "A Long and Precious Road" in their top albums of the year. Tom Buckley, editor of the magazine, wrote “With a compelling voice at once uplifting and heartbreaking, delicate and wounded, and with melodies dexterous and irresistible, Kilgore has, in one bold move, established herself as an important presence in folk music.” Shawnee sings to you about all the things you know—love, life, laughter and loss—but does so with such fiercely personal and poetic truth that you can't help finding, and understanding, your own world through hers.In 2014 Shawnee caught the attention of Hollywood director Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron) who found the Kickstarter campaign for A Long and Precious Road and backed the project. The two decided to write a song together, called Big Giant Me, which would become the single from the 6-song EP they plan to release this year. “It was so clear that we were speaking the same language,” Joss said in an exclusive interview with BuzzFeed when Big Giant Me was released. “It's been a little bit magical.”Shawnee's move to Austin, TX from northwest Washington in 2010 was somewhat accidental, but has proven to be a good one. A Long and Precious Road was crafted at Congress House Studio, and includes the talents of some of Austin's finest—folks like Matt the Electrician and Danny Schmidt, whose music she has loved for years, and who now feels the same way about hers. “Shawnee Kilgore is that rare breed of songwriter who can lead you through familiarity and somehow always end up with you somewhere surprising,” wrote Danny. “Her songs are personal and intimate, snapshots of tiny images very close up, of little observations so familiar and yet so keen that they reconnect us to our every day while somehow managing to disconnect us from our every day enough that we can notice the preciousness of what’s always surrounding us. It’s a hell of a nifty trick! Shawnee’s in my very highest category of songwriter: Those whose next song I can’t wait for them to write.”