Shenandoah Davis

After a childhood spent being homeschooled by her mother at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, Shenandoah Davis began teaching herself piano at the age of three and continued her classical studies up until college, where she decided to audition as a classical voice major despite having no prior vocal training because she worried that her self-taught technique would not be enough to gain her admittance. Studying classical voice, piano, jazz guitar and harp during college, she became frustrated with the 'tunnel vision' and politics of academia and, swearing off classical music after completing her degree, she began composing on her own. In the winter of 2006, a series of travels and tribulations led her to Seattle, where she currently resides. In Shenandoah's American-gothic inspired songs, she weaves together strains of classical, ragtime and klezmer piano to great effect. Though she cites influences from the folkish (Karen Dalton) to the experimental (Final Fantasy), there remains an otherworldly quality about her music that reaches beyond any typical genre. Her haunting but catchy melodies resonate perfectly within the range of her piercingly clear voice, ringing above the piano, which oscillates between bare and understated to frenetic and acrobatic throughout the course of a single song. Shenandoah was featured as Band of the Week by Seattle's The Stranger in April 2008 and her introspective and obsessive song Our Favorite Idols was included on their weekly Setlist. She has also been featured on several noted music blogs, including most recently 'Said the Gramaphone' and 'Sepiachord'. Her talent as a performer and songwriter has led her onto stages with the likes of Sera Cahoone, The Lisps, Ian Cooke, Widower, The Wheel, Gregory Alan Isakov, Paleo, and The Painted Saints. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.