Joan Shelley Tickets

A singer and songwriter from Louisville, Kentucky, Joan Shelley has been described by Rolling Stone magazine as what the imagined offspring of Nick Drake and Sandy Denny would have sounded like. Most easily being put in the category of a folk singer, Shelley is able to perform with country styling as well as the occasional blues lick. As a singer, Shelley's vocals are often described as melodically mellifluous. She is able to draw on a deep southern drawl, when the song calls for it, although at other times she sounds more like a conventional pop singer. Fans of the 1960s new folk sound of singers such as Joan Baez and Peggy Seeger will feel instantly at home when first exposed to her ability to sing a tune with great clarity, focusing on every syllable of each word she performs.

Joan Shelley's career milestones

A guitarist as well as a singer of songs, Shelley has been performing prolifically for years. Most of her early gigs were taken up with her own songs, mixed with traditional Americana. As her career has progressed and her albums have been forthcoming, Shelley tends to focus more and more on performing her latest works, always keen to showcase her talent for songwriting.

As a live performer, Shelley splits her outings on the stage between being completely solo and working in collaborative efforts with other musicians. For example, she sometimes plays with Daniel Martin Moore and Joe Manning. These two performers contributed extensively on her albums Farthest Field, which came out in 2012, and Outside Stay Outside, a release from 2014. Shelley can also be seen performing alongside the old-time Americana trio of musicians known as Maiden Radio, from time to time.

In 2015, Shelley released her next studio album, a work entitled Over and Even. It was a collection of 12 folk songs that featured guest appearances by Will Oldham, Nathan Salsburg and Glen Dentinger. The album's arrangements highlighted Shelley's haunting vocal style in a way that previous recordings had not quite managed. This led to favourable comparisons with the singing of the Canadian superstar of folly singer-songwriting, Joni Mitchell. To promote the album, Shelley embarked on a 19-date tour of the United States.

A further album was unleashed on the public in 2017. This eponymous work was recorded in Chicago and produced by Jeff Tweedy, famous for his work with Wilco. “Wild Indifference” was selected as a single and it came out in March of that year.

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