Shanna in a Dress: She Biked Across America and Played a Show Every Night

Lee and Scott sit down with Shanna in a Dress, who drove eight hours from St. Louis to play in a basement in Blount County. That sounds like a lot until you learn she once biked from Seattle to Boston, sixty miles a day, hauling her own amp and merch, and played a show every single night when she got off the bike. She called it the Tour de Dress. Sometimes she even showered first. Shanna is part songwriter, part comedian, and entirely her own thing. She grew up in Northern Virginia, spent years in Boulder, did a stretch in Nashville, and currently lives in St. Louis while she figures out where to land next. (We're working on her. East Tennessee, y'all, let's woo this woman.) She's toured Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and England, where she says her dry sense of humor finally found its people. She played our Songs and Stories event at The Station in Louisville the night before this taping and set a bar nobody's touched yet. She greeted every single person in the room before the show, learned their names, and called them out from the stage. That's not a gimmick. It's how she figures out what to play for you. Three songs live in the studio: "Sweet Spot," the title track from her new record, about the moment you realize everything you think you want comes with problems you don't have to deal with. She coaches musicians on their careers, and she spends a lot of that time talking people out of believing bigger is automatically better. Jimmy Buffett's bass player told her the contentment in this one is what makes it special, and he wasn't wrong. A song about a man she met on that bike trip in Colorado, who told her what he needed was his freedom. Then life kept putting them in the same place anyway, first Boston eight weeks later, then Nashville. Then it didn't. "Two hands on a clock. I guess that I just thought." And she closes with something that isn't on any record, a song for the big dreamers, about choosing the life of an artist and refusing to surrender to the status quo. We also get into her virtual songwriting group, the process she uses to break writer's block, why awards are validating but not necessary, and the strange problem of working for years in a world where audiences clap no matter what you do. Plus an exclusive preview of an unfinished song called "One Year Left," and a verse about a second piano that'll knock the wind out of you. If you like your music honest and your shows funny, this is the one. shannainadress.com, plus Facebook and Instagram "Sweet Spot" is out now wherever you stream Recorded in Lee's basement, as always Theme song "Maryville" by Wyatt Ellis Catch Jay Clark's Shindig, second Tuesday monthly at TriHop Songs by the Brooks runs mid August into September in Alcoa Songs and Stories returns to The Station this fall Thanks to Volunteer Home Mortgage for sponsoring this episode. If you're even thinking about buying a home or refinancing, give them a call, and tell them you heard it on Blount County Live. #BlountCountyLive #ShannaInADress #SweetSpot #SingerSongwriter #FolkMusic #EastTennesseeMusic #BlountCountyTN #Maryville #Townsend #LiveMusic