Shannon McNally / Geronimo

I get a number of newsletters and new release blurbs in my email in a month and several months ago I got one for this young lady. I read it over, checked out her listing on Amazon, read the reviews and added her to my mental list of new artists to check out.

A couple weeks ago, at Best Buy of all places, I found a copy of her Geronimo CD and decided it was time to make the move and buy The CD. Now, after several weeks of repeated playings I'm here to tell you that this girl is much more than just another pretty face. She has a great voice and knows how to sing. Even more importantly, she knows how to write a tune. With a couple exceptions she's responsible for all the material on Geronimo. Her lyrics are great. These lines from "Miracle Mile" will give you an idea of what I'm talking about......
"Somedays I get so mad still I get out of bed
Put my shoes on and push on ahead
I look for something good to say
Gone are the days that I'm surprised or bewildered
by what they're calling quality
most of it sounds like Bullshit to me"
...and from the title tune Geronimo......
" You dared me to reach for it, dared me to know
So I drove that car just as slow as it would go
listening for the sound
of my last hope hit the ground
Won every battle, but lost the war"

The album has a definite feel to it that draws me in and makes me push the repeat button as soon as the last tune is done. Geronimo was her 2nd full length effort. She now has a new live album that was just released in the last month called "North American Ghost Music" that I believe I'll be picking up soon so I can see how she does in a live environment. If you need to hear clips before making the purchase head over to AMAZON.com and do the search thing.

I give this album 4 + stars out of 5 simply because I think it's possible there's even better stuff ahead for this lady.

TC

UPDATE 3/26/06 - The other day on John Mellencamp's Human Wheels list folks were talking about warm-up acts for John's current mini-tour and one of the guys mentioned he'd like to see Shannon McNally with John again. Turns out back in 2002 Shannon did a couple gigs with John as his warm-up act. I ended up talking with the guy who mentioned this interesting fact and in the spirit of random acts of kindness he sent me a couple pics of shannon that he shot back in 2002. I thought I'd share one of them here and give a shout out to this fine gentleman for his much appreciated gesture.

TC

UPDATE 4/8/06 - I continue to live with this album daily and because I received another pic from the same gentleman as the one above I thought I'd just add another comment. Buy this CD. If you're a lover of good music and well written prose there's simply no way on God's green earth that you'd not enjoy this album.

TC