Country: USA
Genre: Country: bluegrass
Full Length: The Magnolia Sessions
Format: Digital
Label: Anti-Corp Music
Release date: September 4, 2026
A classically trained clarinetist from rural western Washington, Shannon Jae Ridout changed her world when she stumbled upon a pawn shop and found an old acoustic guitar for fifty dollars. She decided that learning to play it might be a better start for her musical career than solely relying on her classical training.
Soon after, she developed an interest in traditional folk ballads from European countries, songs that depicted violent crimes and horrific deaths. Her fascination with these old tales led her to figure out how to play them with the finger and chord patterns she picked up while learning this archaic instrument. Studying and memorizing these songs helped shape her musical voice as a solo folk, bluegrass, and country musician.
Over the next decade, she hitched rides and traveled across the country to build a grassroots reputation, without an agent or a professional band backing her. She seemed to find her calling on her own steam, pursuing it through any means possible, whether busking on the street or performing on any stage she stumbled upon.
After meeting her future husband, she recorded her debut solo album “Unwritten Scripts,” and a year later, she and Nicholas Ridout recorded “Bottle and Chain” with SourMash Melodies. Their momentum grew quickly as they formed the Spitshine Street Band and released “A Bottle, a Gun & a Troubled Mind.” Following Ridout’s passing, SourMash Melodies recorded an EP as The Teardrop Trio, and Shannon released her second solo album “Strung Up Sorrow” before taking a ten-year hiatus.
It was that long before she returned to the stage and unveiled “Two Busted Boots And A Broken Heart,” released last April through Anti-Corp Records. Shannon’s nomadic excursion across America, along with the rewards and tragedies she faced while building her reputation and working with other musicians, inevitably seep into the songs she recorded for “The Magnolia Sessions.”
After agreeing to collaborate with Dan Emery, who had envisioned a project with her since he began the series, she arranged recording sessions with the traditional setting chosen by Emery: a magnolia tree near the mastering studios for Anti-Corp and Black Matter. Surrounded by nature, contending with rain and natural night sounds, Shannon found the environment eerie but appreciated how her surroundings offered her space to breathe and reflect on her set.
In tune with the dark night surrounding her, this set features songs from her discography that evoke a sense of isolation and world weariness, particularly “Leavin’ Me” and “He’d Seen Some Things.” The latter reflects sadness as Shannon sings about someone she knew who had perhaps experienced too much of life. Yet, her wanderlust and hunger for adventure that called her far from home resonate through the finger and chord patterns she built on.
Some moments are slightly brighter, as “Two Sappy Fools” and “Mississippi Please” look back with the curiosity and hopefulness that stayed with her through her own experiences. Shannon’s centered presence allows her to project her voice and guitar notes into the night, blending with the cicadas, crickets, and katydids as if they’re part of the environment.
Disclosing all the ups and downs of her life with frank honesty, her hopes and fears, her certainty and uncertainty about the future, confident and vulnerable, with nothing sugarcoated or whitewashed, Shannon delivers with a professionalism that most likely came from the classical training of her youth. –Dave Wolff
Track list:
1. Leavin’ Me
2. Let There Be No Trouble
3. Two Sappy Fools
4. He’d Seen Some Things
5. Mississippi Please
6. Unwritten Scripts
7. It Ain’t Right
8. Highways Of Scotchbroom
9. Low As Low
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