Shannon McNally Black Irish LP (Red Vinyl)

Shannon's 2017 Rodney Crowell-produced classic is now available on red vinyl. Shannon McNally's blues-Americana return, Black Irish will make you dance, break your heart, and save your soul. The album was recorded in Nashville, but its distinctive sense of place lies 210 miles west, where Memphis meets Mississippi. The primary colors of American music are black and white, and Black Irish displays that hybrid in many shades, mixing country, blues, soul, rock, folk balladry and classic pop.

Black Irish is McNally's most personal project yet, which is saying a lot, given the Americana singer-songwriter's deep catalog. But it speaks to the power of connection, and the power of music to create it and to reflect it. The kick off track "You Made Me Feel For You," was written by her producer, Americana icon, Rodney Crowell, and serves as a metaphor for their collaboration - how his particular understanding of her unique gifts pulled out the career-defining album many have been waiting for since she came on the scene.

She has the voice: bruised, smoky and ornery, right at home where country and soul meet... she's irresistible.

The covers McNally and Crowell chose are prescient; they showcase McNally's command of any style she chooses.... Crowell's accomplishment as producer on Black Irish is delivering a focused portrait of McNally as a visionary songwriter and stellar interpretive vocalist. Those skills, combined with his influence, make her music stand out for its wide accessibility and its deep emotional resonance that she may indeed be bloodied but is defiantly unbowed and empowered for what comes next.