Shannon Lay touring with Kevin Morby (who is putting out her new album)

Kevin Morby has started his own label, Mare Records, which is an imprint of Woodsist (who released his first two solo albums). The first release on the label will be Living Water, the new solo album from Feels guitarist Shannon Lay. Kevin started Mare just to release her record as he explains::

The first time I saw Shannon my heart was broken into a million pieces. I had known her from her wonderful punk band Feels as the lead guitarist who shouted back up, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from her performing solo. But there she was – at a small bar in Los Angeles to maybe 15 people watching while she sat in a chair with an electric guitar on her knee, orange hair covering her face and a picture of Bart Simpson projected behind her. She began her set and my heart stopped the moment her voice leaped into the air – and I did what I do in those rare situations – I recorded it. I pulled out my phone, opened up the voice memos and recorded her whole set (the last time I had done this was three years earlier while watching Kris Kristofferson and Harry Dean Stanton do duets set at Cinefamily). After her performance I was in complete awe and wasn’t sure how to approach her to convey how much I loved it. Suddenly Shannon, an acquaintance from around town, had exposed her super power and I felt instantly star struck in her presence. “I recorded your set so I could listen to it again” I told her, and then to my surprise I found myself saying “let me put out your record” and after convincing Jeremy at Woodsist to do a collaborative release with me, here it is.

Living Water is an instant classic. Recorded by Emmet Kelly (Cairo Gang, Bonnie Prince Billy, Ty Segall) in his Los Angeles home studio, this is an album where you can hear the room reacting to the music taking shape around it. Shannon has a voice that transcends time and space. You can’t tell if she’s old or new, if she’s sitting next to you, on a mountain top, or down in some canyon. Already her second LP to be released in 2017, Shannon is a prolific songwriter, one who lives and breaths melody and with guitar skills to boot. Despite it’s 14 tracks, Living Water comes in well under 40 minutes, but like Pink Moon or Just Another Diamond Day before it, this is music so potent it exists outside the realms of time – but in a world specific only to itself and the new feelings it creates.

-Kevin Morby, Birmingham, Alabama, June 8th 2017

You can listen to absolutely lovely “The Moon’s Detriment” from the album, as well as her album All This Life Goin Down which came out back in February, below.

Living Water is out September 22 via Mare/Woodsist (preorder). Shannon, who you may have seen opening for Ty Segall, will soon be on tour with Kevin Morby, including the Brooklyn show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 7 (tickets). All Shannon Lay tour dates are listed below.

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Shannon Lay – Living Water tracklist:
1. Home
2. Living Water
3. Orange Tree
4. Caterpillar
5. Always Room
6. Dog Fiddle
7. The Search For Gold
8. The Moons Detriment
9. Recording 15
10. Give it up
11. Asa
12. Come Together
13. Coast
14. Sis​

SHANNON LAY – TOUR DATES:
08-14 Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Theatre ^
08-21 Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern *
08-22 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater *
08-24 Salt Lake City, UT – The State Room *
08-25 Fort Collins, CO – Downtown Artey *
08-26 Denver, CO – Globe Hall *
08-28 Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge *
08-29 St. Paul, MN – Turf Club *
08-31 Spring Green, WI – Shitty Barn *
09-01 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall *
09-02 Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme *
09-03 Toronto, Ontario – Horseshoe Tavern *
09-04 Montreal, Quebec – Bar Le Ritz PBD *
09-08 Richmond, VA – The Broadberry *
09-06 Boston, MA – The Sinclair *
09-07 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall Of Williamsburg *
09-13 St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway *
09-15 Dallas, TX – Sundown at Granada *
09-16 Austin, TX – The Mohawk *
09-18 Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf *
09-19 Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar *
09-21 Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom *
09-22 Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst Atrium *
09-23 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall *

^ = w/ Brian Hill
* = w/ Kevin Morby