Talented Cincinnati singer/songwriter Taylor Shannon and his band 2Bit Smoke Parade host a “Halloween Bash”/EP release party in honor of their outstanding, recently issued EP, Another Sad Story, Friday at The Southgate House Revival (111 E. Sixth St., Newport, southgatehouse.com). The show starts at 8:30 p.m. with openers Sundae Drives and The Midwesterns. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door.
Showing less willingness to adhere to long-established stylistic expectations (which have developed for reasons ranging from tradition to commercial concerns) in favor of following their muses wherever their diverse access-to-everything listening tastes take them, upcoming generations of music creators are becoming increasingly genre fluid, with many (perhaps unintentionally) reshaping musical styles into something more multidimensional and varied. While curiosity and exploration have led to such shape-shifting throughout music’s history, it was usually more evolutionary, manifesting itself as “sub-genres” that amassed their own fixed “rules” over time. The sonic expansion of today seems more like a broadening and loosening of the definitions of the one-word core genres, something reflected in the music being released and the inclination of the general fanbase of a particular musical category to accept it (a symbiotic relationship, to be sure). Where once answering the question “What kind of music do you like?” with “Oh, I listen to everything” could be seen as nervous small talk, such a response from a young music fan in 2017 is more likely to come from a place of sincerity and honesty.
A good example of the phenomenon can be found in Country music, where vintage-styled, tradition-minded acts and earthier Rock-fueled artists coexist at award shows, amongst critics and on the charts with acts boasting a more Pop-oriented sound, which itself has the footprints of everything from Bluegrass and Folk to EDM, Hip Hop and other mainstream Pop.
Taylor Shannon is often tagged as a Country artist (he won the Country trophy at the 2016 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards and is up for the same honor this year) and, besides augmenting it with “Rock” and “Soul” identifiers, he doesn’t shy away from the classification. But as he and 2Bit Smoke Parade show with the six songs that make up Another Sad Story, the term Country is relative. It’s such an engaging mesh of styles, you’ll feel bad for the stodgy, less open-minded music lover who might never give Shannon a chance because he or she “hates Country music.” It’s their loss.
Classic, Southern, Hard and Modern Rock play just as big of a role on Another Sad Story, giving it a vibrancy and energy that is infectious. Shannon’s strong, emotive voice resembles Caleb Followill, whose Kings of Leon also provides a good point of reference when trying to describe Shannon’s sound (if those Tennessee-based Rock superstars turned the twang dial up just a notch, is there any doubt they’d be a formidable presence on the Country charts?). But that’s just a starting point.
Another Sad Story’s hard-driving opening track “Suburban Lament” sets the scene nicely, mixing Classic Rock melodies and a few Country/Heartland Rock platitudes (“This old truck…”) with punchy guitar that moves between punkish face-slaps, AltRock octave climbs, big held chords and — I shit you not — rhythmic, trickling plucking akin to early Blink-182 or No Doubt riffs. The band gears down on the twinkling, slow-simmering “Passing Through,” which features some rich multi-part vocal harmonies, before throttling up again on EP highlight “Gone,” with guitar work that would make Jack White smirk approvingly and hooks so instantly memorable you could label it Power Pop (if, you know, you’re into labels).
Sad Story decelerates again as it comes to a close, with the swirling, eerie atmospherics of “A Long Goodbye” and the yearning closer “Secrets,” which strips away the distortion and bombast, replacing it with an airy acoustic sparseness. The nakedness of the final track offers a great reminder that, while the lively musical variance makes Another Sad Story a thoroughly entertaining and euphonious listen, at its essence, Shannon’s rich, soulful songwriting is what makes it such a potent one.
Visit taylorshannonmusic.com for more info.
Contact Mike Breen: mbreen@citybeat.com
This article appears in Oct 18-25, 2017.