Shelby Pollard

It’s not often that I stumble upon something that’s completely undiscovered. I’m usually the guy that thinks he found something awesome, only to find out that the rest of the world has known about it for several months. This time, I can definitively state that I was first. Ok, maybe not first, but dang it I’m sure as hell in on the ground floor. Without further adieux, I present: Shelby Pollard. Pollard is a folk rock/alt-country singer-songwriter who currently resides in Chicago. Last year, he released his first EP, Not Home.

Possibly one of the most endearing elements of Not Home is that it’s very unpolished. If done right, a raw track can be a real boost to the emotional impact of a song. Really, the only time an unpolished, low-production sound works is with a singer-songwriter rather than a whole band. Right from the outset, Not Home will have you tapping your foot with Pollard’s percussive guitar. After “Chicago to Anywhere” gets things rolling, “These Dark Streets” delivers a slight shift, in a slower, slightly more mature track with a much more abstract feeling than the more personal track that precedes it.

“Talk” is a track where the influence of other singer-songwriters such as Jeff Buckley or Damien Rice can definitely be heard. The simple arrangement of clean guitar with a touch of reverb and Pollard’s forlorn vocals make this track one that will draw out your deepest emotions even on a good day. “Out of My Mind” gives a brief return to the raw acoustic sound that was established on the opening two tracks, and then comes another melancholy track in “Under City Lights” in which a plodding piano lays the undertone for the final track on Not Home.

While Not Home is a great sample of his music, his full-length release Bad News, In The Best Way is due out in March and will be a darker, folk sound. The record will expand instrumentally, adding some electric slide and harmonica to help the tracks have a fuller feel that will hopefully not diminish the raw emotion that’s already present in Pollard’s music. The album will also feature an additional vocalist in Lexi Goddard, which should help to add some more variety to the songs. As a whole, Bad News, In The Best Way is shaping up to be a more mature offering than Not Home, but we can only hope that Pollard doesn’t choose to completely abandon the alt-country influence that made Not Home so charming. - Heave Media