Shannon & The Clams – Gone By The Dawn
I’ve raved about my love for Shannon Shaw’s voice pretty much since the moment I first heard it on “Lover’s Lane” with Hunx & his Punx. Her latest release, “Gone By The Dawn,” recorded with her band, The Clams, finds the group with a significantly refined sound. Much of that is connected to recorded in a proper studio for perhaps the first time, Sonny Smith’s Tiny Telephone studio in San Francisco. There’s still an edge to the band, but at times it’s polished cleanly off and smoothed out. “Gone By The Dawn” finds Shaw crooning in a way that could easily find this music in some more commercial spaces than the band has been used to. I’m not sure how fans of the more grittier days of the past will take to this new record and new sound. Personally, I love it and I’m interested to see how far this sound will take the band.