Shawnee Kilgore
Austin, Texas, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2007 | SELF
Music
Press
One of the year's finest albums. 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. This is a gorgeously crafted work. - Tom Buckley ~ Editor of Texas Music Magazine
Shawnee’s in my very highest category of songwriter: Those whose next song I can’t wait for them to write. -
Shawnee Kilgore is to music as velvet gloves are to diamond cutters. She holds all this beauty in her hand, raw and untouched, then she chips away until it gleams in the light, holding on with a soft gentleness that she has perfected. - Green Frog Acoustic Tavern
One of the most wonderfully gifted singer/songwriters I've ever heard. - Dirt Floor Studio
...a real mix of childlike wonder and dark sophistication. - The Bellingham Herald
Discography
2015~A Long and Precious Road
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-long-and-precious-road/id1024734014
2014~ Big Giant Me~ Single written with Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers, The Avengers: Age of Ultron)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/big-giant-me-feat.-joss-whedon/id907587394?i=907587460
2013~ Will You Think of Me - Single
https://shawneekilgore.bandcamp.com/track/will-you-think-of-me
2011~ Austin Skyline
https://shawneekilgore.bandcamp.com/album/austin-skyline
2009~ Second Hand Dress
https://shawneekilgore.bandcamp.com/album/second-hand-dress
2007~ This Mighty World
https://shawneekilgore.bandcamp.com/album/this-mighty-world-e-p
Photos
Bio
In 2014 Shawnee launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund her fourth solo album, A Long and Precious Road. In her video message to potential backers, a tribute to Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, she held up a card that said "I'm learning to ask for help." This vulnerable and honest phrase struck a chord for one particular music fan perusing Kickstarter projects on his rare off time -- Joss Whedon. Whedon, one of Hollywood's most prominent directors (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, The Avengers) loved Shawnee's music and her voice, and backed the project, taking the first step towards what would become the unlikeliest of creative partnerships.
They began writing together and in October 2016 released their long awaited collaboration EP, Back to Eden. “It was so clear that we were speaking the same language,” Joss said, “It's been a little bit magical.”
Shawnee had another more recent Kickstarter success, funding a new full length album recorded with Zachariah Hickman and Sam Kassirer of Josh Ritter’s Royal City Band at the Great North Sound Society in Maine where some of her favorite Josh albums were made. The new release will include her song Abraham, recorded by Grammy nominee Ruthie Foster on 2017’s Joy Comes Back.
Shawnee would be the first to tell you that the boots you just complimented her on cost $3 at a thrift store. She'll give the real answer when you ask how she's doing and she's just had her heart broken. That's the honesty with which she speaks, writes, and lives. She 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.
A Long and Precious Road earned her a place among Texas Music Magazine’s albums of the year, as well as the top spot on their list of Songwriters of Distinction, an accolade shared by Kacey Musgraves and Leon Bridges.
“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.” ~Tom Buckley, Texas Music Magazine.
“Shawnee’s in my very highest category of songwriter,” wrote Danny Schmidt. “Those whose next song I can’t wait for them to write.”
Band Members
Links
