Swimming with Shelley Short

I'm looking back over my shoulder,
throwing bad apples away.
Oh what a day, oh what a day, every minute gets closer.
Every one says hey, systems fall away.
You'll learn to swim in the still water,
I’ll learn to swim in the waves.

- Swimming

What do you get when you take a half recorded record from Chicago and finish it up in L.A.? Ask Shelley Short, and she'll say Water For the Day, of course! It's her third album, and it includes eleven tracks of dreamy-folk goodness that will float you along like there's no tomorrow. Ask her about the songs, and she'll say,“Most of the songs were influenced by strings or webs that seems to tie everything together, and every so often you can get a glimpse of them and try to see how they work, where they go, and why they cling to the things they do.” That being said, listen for a lot of introspective and extrospective lyrics laid over light instrumentation that dallies along and provides a wonderful canvas for her voice. And speaking of her voice, it very much reminds me of Tanya Donelly's with both its pacing as well as tone.

The lyrics above come from the first song below, Swimming, quite possibly my favorite song from the album. It's the second track and displays some wonderfully beautiful guitar playing. Listen to the percolating notes right after the one minute mark. The next song, 4 Legs & Light, comes near the end of the album and uses its guitar a little more traditionally, with a hint of country thrown in.

Shelley Short - Swimming : Water For The Day

Shelley Short - 4 Legs & Light : Water For The Day

and one from her last album:

Shelley Short - Like Anything, It's Small : Captain Wild Horse

Visit her website, her label Hush Records, and become her friend on MySpace.

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Belly - Someone To Die For : Star