Texas-based RF Shannon‘s music continues to sit on the fringes of genres making them a band that’s often difficult to categorise. In Shane Renfro’s words ‘We’re too country for the indie world, not country enough for the Americana crowd, too mellow for the psych scene, too Texas thunderstorm for the California sunshine.’ Therein lies part of their attraction…they have a unique sound and strong essence of roots and sense of place, sprinkled throughout with some light cosmic dust.
For their latest offering, Dublin, Texas, those roots extend across the Atlantic to Ireland in a joyous number that’s enough to brighten any day (even if it does rain in the video). In Shane’s words:
I had plans to travel to Ireland before the pandemic hit, so when I couldn’t make the trip, I tried to ease the longing by making a song that would melodically transport me there, conjure that old feeling.
I like to think if I go far enough back, I’ll meet some version of myself in it, someone who wants us all to be free and thriving alongside the fierce beauty of earth that one can only know locally and imminently. Ultimately, it’s a song meant to go beyond all that, because here I am in Texas in 2021. I just want the song to make a person want to move their bodies, sway out of time, hum with the joy of planting your bare feet on green grass, wherever and whenever they are.
The song is accompanied by a new video on which he shared the following:
I cooked up this idea of having “ancestral spirits” attached to Jeff and I, without us ever really noticing them, and the plan was to explore all of these transitional spaces–bridges, cemeteries, crossroads and the like, with mysterious and symbolic appearances from the “Mother Mary” character, with her acting as a sort of psychopomp as we cruised back roads in the old chevy here on the earthly plane.
The rain might even be my favorite part. I think it marries the foggy and wet seasonal climate of Ireland with the Texas downpours that sweep through in the springtime. It connects the places in a way that I could never have planned for. But damn did it rain.
Shane Renfro is now based in Lockhart, Texas along with brother/drummer Jeff Renfro. Ignacio Guerrero and Kitty Beebe have solidified the recent lineup while the band works on a new album due in 2022.
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Photo Credit: Johnny Musselman