Sara Shansky and the Titanic Dance Band

"Sara Shansky combines thoughtful lyrics with engaging melodies. Sara's winning combination made her a crowd favorite at Daisychain Music Fair 2002. On mp3.com her music often appears on the daily World/Folk Featured Music list." - Tom Hale

Her roots are in Barrington, and music is in her soul. Sara Shansky, 26, guitar in hand, will soon embark on her first solo tour, including a stop in Providence this month. Ms. Shansky, the daughter of Barrington's webmaster, Joseph Shansky, writes her own acoustic folk music. Her poetic lyrics have earned her a place in the city she now calls home — Austin, Texas.

The tour promotes Ms. Shansky's new album, "Inertia."

"Because I think I've been moving along, so much traveling, music has sort of kept me going. This tour is because I just did my second album, it just came out in January," she said.

After attending Tufts University in Massachusetts, she roamed to a few different cities — Portland, Ore., San Francisco, and finally Austin. A friend and fellow musician, Steven Pile, said Austin was the place to be, a city hopping with musicians and a lot of opportunities for performing and getting involved in the music scene. She made the move last September.

"There's tons of places to play around town, from bars to coffee shops to farmers' markets and restaurants. There are endless possibilities for musicians out here. It's a community of musicians."

Ms. Shansky said she's planning to stay in the Austin area awhile, ready to do some settling down after traveling. She does miss the ocean; the waves were not far off when she lived in Barrington or San Francisco, but she doesn't miss the cold New England winters.

"It was 75 and sunny on New Year's Eve. We had maybe one or two nights of frost," she said.

Ms. Shansky said Austin is a town that truly supports their musicians. When performing, she said it's not uncommon for a restaurant owner to ask you to come and sing, or a DJ for a radio station might ask for an interview. To supplement the income she makes singing, she teach classes at a couple of different day care centers around town. She teaches small children the basics of rhythm, getting the youngsters involved in musical play with small instruments. She has also done some back-up singing for other musicians.

Musical memories

Although she did not foresee music as the major path her life would take, it was always a part of her life early on.

She learned piano in the second grade and developed her skills over the next eight years. In middle school she added the clarinet, and as a freshman in high school, she took her first guitar lessons. Since the eighth grade, she has learned to develop her singing with private voice lessons.

"The lessons helped me feel more confident and comfortable in the spotlight. I had always been interested in singing."

Ms. Shansky said music was a part of the youth scene when she lived in Barrington.

"When I was in high school people would go down to the beach at night and sing. People would sing along, and everyone had a drum or guitar. I never felt comfortable to play, I wasn't experienced enough. Twelve years later, I can finally join in."

As a student at Barrington High School, she sang with the chorus and the audition choir, performing around town and in competitions, and tested her voice on stage in musicals with the school's theater group, Stagemasters.

Upcoming tour

This spring and summer will mark Ms. Shansky's first solo tour. The songwriter will start her journey in Texas, then travel to Washington D.C., New York and New England.

While the weather was fine in January, she said she will be glad to leave Texas for awhile.

"We're expecting temperatures in the 90s next week," she said.

Ms. Shansky learned how to set up a tour from friends in the business, and a music industry "boot camp" in Austin that holds seminars to teach musicians the business side of their art.

Ms. Shansky's second CD has been two years in the making, and produced in parts from several areas of the country

"I had little bits of it down at a time; some in Portland, some in San Francisco and some here," she said.

Thorny Roses (from "Inertia")

Here's a look at some lyrics from a new Sara Shansky song. Ms. Shansky is a Barrington native, and her father Joseph is the town's webmaster.

Feel the pulling of the sun

A gentle tugging toward that Texas town

It's not a push from anyone

A savored silence, such an empty sound

It's drawing me away from here

Even the ocean can not bind me to the sand ...

I'm gathering memories, not moss

These simple pleasures, playing solo by the sea

Pack up all your things, it's time to move along

And stay right here where you belong

Shansky tour stop

* What: Barrington native Sara Shansky will perform her original songs during a summer tour

* When: Friday, June 10, at 8 p.m.

* Where: Cafe Zog, 239 Wickenden St., Providence

* What's next: Ms. Shansky's tour will continue in Cambridge, Mass. The singer will also perform at Belhurst Castle in Geneva, New York, before playing in Oregon. By mid August she will be returning to her home in Austi - Barrington Times

This is going to be a terrible music review of some great music.

And by terrible, I mean almost completely subjective...I'm utterly biased, I'm friends with the artist, we even sang together back in the day, and I don't think I would purposefully say anything that might make one person fewer buy one of her albums. I even think she wicked cute. But in this case, I think the bias is ok, because her music is really, really good, and even when trying to get some objective distance I think it deserves all the praise I'm going to heap on it.

So, she's Sara Shansky, a singer/songwriter from the little state of Rhode Island, but she currently hangs her hat in Austin, Texas. She's got a beautiful voice, plays a mean guitar, and pens some fantastic, poignant lyrics. Someone compared her voice to "human silk", a turn of phrase that's been stuck in my head, and that is completely apt.

If you're in a hurry and just want a taste before you go ahead and buy her album, I'd suggest jumping to her "Inertia" CD Baby page and clicking on "Thorny Roses"...man is that a great opening lick, and there's something about the tune of the first stanza that is so catchy... and the lyrics! The song describes her being torn between the call of the Northwest and Austin...

Feel the pulling of the sun
A gentle tugging toward that Texas town
It's not a push from anyone
A savored silence, such an empty sound
It's drawing me away from here
Even the ocean can not bind me to the sand
Just ripping free from all I fear
To start again without a helping hand

I'm not even positive what "Even the ocean can not bind me to the sand" means, but I LOVE THAT LINE.

More great lines are found in Mileage, a spoken-word piece that is the final (and unlisted) track on her earlier album Stamp Mileage. It's one of this month's Front Page Picks, actually she transcribed it as a favor to me, and it's such a terrific piece, visceral and evocative.

(On an even more personal note...I mentioned singing with Sara...we were both in the group sQ, Tufts University's "other" a cappella group. It's always a bit weird when you realize that the bit of musical history that loomed so large in your personal story is just a little sidepath in some one else's artistic journey...)

So I'd recommend clicking on one of the album covers above and ordering one or both of these albums...(I'd say "Inertia", but then you'd be missing "Sweet Marmalade"...) Because finding and supporting a great independent artist is cool, because she's a friend of the Keeper of the Blender, because the music is just damn great. - www.loveblender.com

"Sara’s pristine voice and fluid rhythm guitar perfectly complement Steve’s soulful singing and impressive guitar leads....The highlight of the evening came next beginning with Sara’s “Sweet Marmalade.” All three musicians strummed seamlessly while Steve’s slight twang and Sara’s effervescent sweetness wrapped themselves around each other." - Adam Kaye

"Listening to Stamp Mileage is like having an old friend reach through the stereo speakers to share a pot of coffee and casually reveal how she mastered milking the best parts from everyday life. Sara Shansky has discovered the trick, and that she chose to pick up a guitar and give her life lessons a voice is our benefit." - Kate Cohen

"Sara’s pristine voice and fluid rhythm guitar perfectly complement Steve’s soulful singing and impressive guitar leads....The highlight of the evening came next beginning with Sara’s “Sweet Marmalade.” All three musicians strummed seamlessly while Steve’s slight twang and Sara’s effervescent sweetness wrapped themselves around each other." - Adam Kaye

"Also recently transplanted from various parts are Steven Pile and Sara Shansky, who perform as Billy No. 9, lending symbiotic vocal and instrumental support to each other's sturdy original songs." - Jeff Rosenberg

"Sara Shansky is a treasure and I expect to see her career take off very soon." - Donnie Blanz

"Also recently transplanted from various parts are Steven Pile and Sara Shansky, who perform as Billy No. 9, lending symbiotic vocal and instrumental support to each other's sturdy original songs." - Jeff Rosenberg