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Summit Daily News Rockin' around the U.S. Who: Brittany Shane When and where: 5-8 p.m. tonight at Burke & Riley's and 8-10 p.m. Saturday at Blue River Bistro, Breckenridge Where'd the name come from? Brittany Shane is my name, and I'm the singer-songwriter (I say this line like I'm in an old Western movie, squinting my eyes from the bright sun and about to get back on my dusty horse after a long day of fighting cowboy crime). Home base: Bay Area, Calif. Type of music: Rock, pop, alt-country blend. People have compared me to Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, The Bangles, The Sundays and the Cowboy Junkies a few times. I love writing catchy songs that tell a good story. If your music were a tangible item, what would it be, and why? A kitten. Frisky, daring — but sweet and lovable in-between. Why do people love ya? I've been on my first U.S. tour since November 2009. I left the day after Thanksgiving, and this July is my last set of tour dates before I head back into the studio (what we musicians call rest??!). Hmm. Most people are just learning who I am. Friends and family are impressed that I have circled the U.S. four times through rain, snow, you name it. Three band mates in an SUV. I've waited my whole life to tour, so I'm ready to share my music with everyone and anyone. I guess I won't ask if you love me; I'll just play your city first. How do you keep it fresh? I clean out the tour van. Seriously, I'll write new songs or add new cover songs to the set. That usually wakes up any band mate getting too comfortable. Claim to fame: My music is featured in the award-winning independent film, “The Village Barbershop.” The Village Barbershop is currently playing on Showtime 2 and Encore and is available on Netflix. What's the craziest thing you've done/weirdest experience? I performed at a hookah bar on the first leg of my tour. I was told I'd be paid for my performance with one hookah and three flavors. The owner, who looked like Ron Jeremy, was really high, so we only saw him once before we played. He went into his office, which was filled with smoke, and never came back out. It looked like he stepped into another dimension, or into the doorway that Kelly LeBrock stepped out of in the 80's movie “Weird Science.” After our set, the band and I gathered around our free hookah and celebrated with a few flavored puffs. We couldn't decide if this was cool and different or just plain dumb. I just wanted the owner to open his door and walk out as Kelly LeBrock. http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20100723/AE/100729933 Brittany Shane at Flagstaff Brewing Co. Fri, March 26 Brittany Shane Gig Alert: Brittany Shane Tonight at The Lounge on Elm Street Brittany Shane But Shane's music is only part of the story: The gal is a proponent of organic farming, makes her own non-toxic cleaning supplies and supports The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. And, when not on tour, Shane teaches children tap and ballet classes. What's next, a run for president as the candidate for the Green Party? OK, OK: Such cynicism is certainly not warranted. Shane simply stays true to her ideals. And Have Heart is a solid set of shiny, soft rock loaded with hummable choruses. Songs such as "One Station," "Move into Light" and "Sunsets in Bloom" recall '80s hitmakers The Sundays and The Bangles. Light, but not unsubstantial, Shane's music is the kind of pop that sounds great coming from the car radio.
"A singer with a big heart" By: Tom Lanham San Francisco Chronicle Pink Pages, Sunday June 7th
SATURDAY, JUNE 13 There are hundreds of booths offering food, wine and crafts, there are kid attractions like a petting zoo, pony rides and a bounce house, but what really sets this fair apart is the music lineup. Two stages feature, among other acts, Brittany Shane, Tommy Castro, the Unauthorized Rolling Stones and Shana Morrison, and at 10 a.m. next Sun. there's a high school battle of the bands. 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. next Sun. Downtown Novato on Grant Avenue between Redwood Boulevard and Seventh Street. (415) 897-1164, www.novatochamber.com San Francisco Chronicle/96 Hours Rep Pick! Thursday April 30, 2009 7x7 Magazine, February, 2009
BARABOO NEWS REPUBLIC Baraboo Grad finds Pretty Skies in Music Business By: Brian D. Bridgeford January, 27 2009 Six songs by Baraboo native turned San Francisco rock 'n' roller Brittany Safranek are featured in "The Village Barbershop," an independent film arriving Friday at The Point Cinemas in Madison. Safranek, known as Brittany Shane when her band performs, said the film's score includes songs from her 2008 album "Have Heart Live Young" and 2005's "Decked Out." Safranek's husband, guitarist and film editor Bob Spector, knows Chris Ford, writer, director and producer of the movie. While Ford was editing the film and preparing its soundtrack, they shared songs from her two newest albums with him. "He liked them so much they stayed in the movie," Safranek said. Ford said "The Village Barbershop" is his first film. The story is inspired by a barbershop he went to as a child, The Village Barbershop in Reno. One of the lead characters, Art Leroldi, is a barber who represents many older men Ford knows, such as his father, uncle and grandfather. Stuck in a routine, Art gets "a second chance at life" when he has to seek a new partner and is forced to hire a spirited young women, Gloria MacIntyre. Gloria needs a second chance herself, having just been dumped by her boyfriend for another woman just as she was going to tell him he is pregnant, according to a synopsis of the film. Instead of allowing herself to be ejected from her boyfriend's mobile home, she steals it and parks it behind the barbershop. "In many ways it's kind of a fish-out-of-water story," Ford said. "Second chances walk by people and it's kind of about why people don't say yes to them or agree to them. In the end, six Brittany Shane songs fit with the film, he said. "They just kind of sound like the movie," he said. Safranek said the title song on "Have Heart Live Young" grows out of childhood memories of her father, Clem Safranek of Baraboo, and their visits to the Alpine Cafe downtown with her three siblings Dustin, Josh and Brooke. "He always tells me to remember the simple things in life, to do what we did as kids, to always look around and see the beauty around us, the sunflowers," she said. "(In the song) I'm talking about watching him put his cream in his coffee, which was funny for us. He would say it was like a tornado and we'd all start laughing," Safranek said. Having six songs featured in a film sound track is a big boost to what Safranek says is a rising music career. While she has not lived out of her car, as some performers had done, she has had to work hard building her audience since moving to the Bay area in 2000, she said. "Getting songs in a movie or on TV is one the big way to be recognized these days," she said. "It's mostly about placement, getting songs in there to get yourself out there." Safranek said she and her band are playing at places she would "never have dreamed of playing at" a few years ago, such as the Cafe Du Nord, a hip, swanky restaurant and performance venue in San Francisco. "I feel it's just the beginning right now," she said. "After eight years out here, it feels like it's just taking off and things are coming together." Check out the January 28th issue at: BACKSTAGELIVE Teaming up with Producer Zack Smith (founder of the 1980’s band Scandal) as well as the ever so talented Michael Lockwood, Brittany Shane has set herself on the right path to success. Shane is certainly no rookie to the music industry; she has performed with as well as opened up for artists such as Stevie Nicks, Chris Isaak, Heart, Indigo girls and even Foreigner. The opportunity to work along side of Michael Lockwood was the brain child of Zack Smith. “We were looking for a Producer to work with us on this project and Zack stepped in because he saw our frustrations’ says Shane. “Zack called his good friend Michael Lockwood to come in and work with us – he helped by doing 3 songs with us at first”. Brittany went on to say “They brought in a few session musicians & we ended up making the EP. After 6 months we wanted to make 6 more songs & they were totally into it.” Now with her full CD finished & mixed Brittany Shane is ready to hit the stage! In 2003 Brittany released her album ‘Decked Out’ & it was named one of the best local Cds by the San Francisco Chronicle. Now into 2008 Brittany Shane is ready for everyone to listen to her new album ‘Have Heart Live Young’. The track that Michael sent to me is titled ‘Pretty Sky’ – the melody to this track is one of the most soothing tunes I have heard in quite some time. Brittany’s voice is crystal clear & her tone is simply amazing. Michael’s harmonics and guitar fillers are phenomenal. “Many people have not heard of me yet” admits Brittany but let me assure you, if you can take the time to listen to her music on MySpace or you can also find her music on ITunes – it will be time well spent. All of the writers and staff of Backstage Live magazine pride ourselves on being able to bring fresh & new music to our readers. Although we do tend to focus on Rock & Roll and heavier bands; we also like to showcase artists who work hard, have talent and need to be heard by music lovers. Brittany Shane is a perfect fit! Check out her website as well as MySpace & be sure to show her some love! Check out the June issue of Backstage Live at: www.backstagelivemagazine.com PALO ALTO DAILY NEWS EAST BAY EXPRESS ISTHMUS (MADISON, WI) JULY 2, 2007 Brittany Shane’s musical career began inside the Regent apartments in 1997. She was a sophomore at UW-Madison, majoring in English literature. “There was a guy who lived just across the hall, and I could hear him playing guitar through the door,” says Shane. “After I met him, I asked him to teach me how to play. He said he would in exchange for a pack of cigarettes.” A decade later, Shane is one of the top singer/songwriters of the San Francisco music scene. She’s a regular at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore. Her latest EP was produced by Zach Smith from the ’80s band Scandal (“Goodbye to You,” “The Warrior”). The bands she’s shared bills with lately have included the Indigo Girls, Travis and the Wallflowers. It’s a California dream come true for this Baraboo native, who’s been attracted to the City by the Bay ever since a high school trip there. “I didn’t know how I would ever get to San Francisco,” says Shane. “But I was determined to find some way.” Since her musical baptism inside the Regent, her development as a singer/songwriter has steadily progressed. She attended open-mike nights at the Rathskeller during her junior year. She placed an ad in Maximum Ink to avail herself as a vocalist. She was soon fronting a short-lived band called Subversion. “We played Dudley’s once,” she says. Shane performed in those days as Brittany Safranek. “When I got to San Francisco, a lot of people had trouble spelling my last name, so I started using my middle name as my last name.” Shane recorded two full-length CDs before she left Madison in 2000. Her second CD, Moravian Star , was released at a Steep & Brew show on State Street that year. Her Madison backing band included Jay Iverson (Electric Automatic) and her brother, Dustin Safranek. She’s looking forward to her July 3 show at the King Club for the chance to play with both of them again. “It’s our reunion,” she says. After graduating from UW-Madison in 1999, Shane worked for a year as a receptionist to save money for a San Francisco move. “I really wanted someone to go with me, but no one could do it. My aunt had a friend in Danville [on the east side of the San Francisco Bay] who told me I could stay with her for a while. So I bought a one-way ticket and made the move.” Three months later, Shane had saved enough to rent “a tiny box” of an apartment in San Francisco. She started playing solo acoustic shows at a neighborhood coffeehouse and joined a female songwriter collective called the DivaBand. In 2002, Shane married a guitarist named Bob Spector, who makes his living editing television commercials. Spector and Shane began performing and recording together. Their 2003 album, Decked Out , was named one of the Top 20 local releases of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle . “That kind of put me on the map in San Francisco,” says Shane. Meanwhile Spector had met former Scandal guitarist Zach Smith through a professional contact. Spector increasingly called upon Smith to make music for the commercials he edited. Last year, when Spector and Shane began working on their follow-up EP, Smith agreed to produce it. He lined up experienced session musicians (whose credentials included Norah Jones, Foo Fighters and Aimee Mann) to play on the EP. The five songs on Shane’s new self-titled EP, especially the lead track, “Better,” are the kind of polished pop-rock that would be rotating on stations like Magic 98 if Shane were backed by major-label promoters. “Lyrics are very important to me,” says Shane. “I always felt like I was a poet before I was a musician. I like using the imagery of darkness and light.” The last song on Shane’s new album is called “Sunsets in Bloom.” “I wrote that song when I first moved out here and I was just blown away by the sunsets over the ocean.” The song is Shane’s favorite composition — evidence that her California Dream still burns bright
MAXIMUM INK, MAY 2007 Exquisitely produced intimate pop that sublimely marinates emotions and experiences set to poetry to be liberated and gently caressed by a tender cortege of sweetly swept touching musicianship. San Franciscan based Brittany Shane has been plying her trade for nigh on six years now, from her humble beginnings entertaining the most clued in coffee houses she has it seems blossomed into one of the key players of the Bay area scene. Her debut long player ’Decked Out’ won her acclaim from writers fortunate enough to stumble and catch on to the buzz filtering throughout the scene and since then by way of gathering together a group of crafted guest musicians (whose collective cv reads like an A list industry portfolio) Shane has happily realised the sounds and moods in her minds eye onto CD by way of this delectable 5 track EP. Reminiscent in the main of a young Kirsten Hersh, Shane crafts captivating yarns both memorable and lingering ’Better’ opens the set, perfect for those who’ve ever had their hearts dashed, this sparkling gem seductively shimmers softly basking upon breezy waves of uplifting splendour. ’Pretty Sky’ is slenderly bathed in cotton rich pining steel guitars that radiate fulsomely atop lazy eyed roving chord chimes. The aching and partly haunting ’Move into light’ is as tender as it gets, this slow burning beauty is shrink wrapped in romance, initially spectral in design it soon unfurls tenderly reaching through you to pluck your heartstrings. All said and done though nothing quite matches the parting ’Sunsets in Bloom’ in terms of elegance, artistry and enchantment. This smoking baby delicately swoons, swerves and caresses in equal measures, through bliss laden hazes threaded by countrified soft psyche accents succulent arrangements weave a milky allure that recall a particularly laid back Lush shimmying up to Mazzy Star to smoulder their way past your defences. An absolute treasure of a release. www.brittanyshane.com Maximum Ink Music Magazine-February 2007 San Francisco’s Brittany Shane...hooked up with Scandal’s co-founder and guitarist Zack Smith to produce an EP worth of strong, engaging songs. Her self-titled disc spotlights Brittany’s luscious voice floating on a rich, undulating tapestry of steel guitars and synthesizers for a splendid effort that shows off her blossoming confidence and ever-growing talent. -John Noyd, Maximum Ink Music Magazine THE ONION - June 2005 THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Aidin Vaziri, Chronicle Pop Music Critic Tuesday, December 27, 2005 While the rest of the world was stuck listening to the same old noise this year from the usual culprits like the Dave Matthews Band and Mariah Carey, we here in the Bay Area once again got to spoil our ears by indulging in tunes that were truly innovative, genre bending and perfectly thrilling. Here, the 21 best local releases from the past year. And remember, it's never too late to discover your new favorite artist. Brittany Shane "Decked Out" THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN - August 2005 The title of singer-songwriter Brittany Shane's third album, Decked Out, might refer to her fashionable appearance on the record sleeve or the Neil Young-style title track. But those who have heard her two previous self-released discs will take it as a reference to a new, fuller rock sound that recalls the moody jangle of heyday REM and the stomp of Tom Petty's band the Heartbreakers. It's a welcome change that lends more support to her alto voice and thoughtful songs, particularly on "Fruits on Your Vintage," where guitarist Bob Spector conjures the Jayhawks' Gary Louris atop Bruce Springsteen-ish lyrics ("He's down by Steve's Tow looking for a fight / He's grown fond of his old friends' whiskey and Kool lights"). Other highlights include the aforementioned "Decked Out" and the melodic "Come Around." There are two missteps, however: "I Was Wrong" wanders aimlessly, and the tongue-in-cheek genre exercise "Club and Disco," while not a bad song, deviates from the tenor of the rest of the album. Shane makes up for it with the pretty folk song "Pocketful of Riches," where her voice comes alive with projection, control, and high notes on lyrics that show an eye for detail ("I've got a feather from November / And a penny from 1963"). (Alex K. Fong) SN&R NEWSREVIEW.COM Decked Out, Brittany Shane’s third CD, is a big leap from her acoustic days. Rarely has a folkie made such a smooth and unpretentious transition to rock as Shane has. A veteran of the Bay Area coffeehouse/bar circuit, Shane has a new electric style and backing band that fit her like the size 2 dresses she wears. Her lyrics are so personal that you feel like you are listening to a phone conversation or reading her diary. And crystal clean and tasteful guitarist Bob Spector leads Shane’s crack backup band like a cavalry charge. Such songs as “Come Around,” “This Movie” and “Fruits On Your Vintage” may sound familiar, but that’s just Shane’s talent shining. Like a rose that took a long time to flower, Brittany Shane has blossomed. Decked Out is easy to listen to and hard to hate. MADISCON.COM RHYTHM - July 03, 2003 A rootsy singer-songwriter and 1999 UW-Madison graduate, Brittany Shane will return to the city from her current residence in San Francisco for a concert at the Anchor Inn Saturday night. Shane – whose last name while in Madison was Safranek – is a regular performer in San Francisco area clubs. Her most recent effort, the CD "Decked Out," showcases a folk-rocker who leans toward the latter half of that description. She will be joined by three bandmates at the Madison show, which is the only Midwest date for her. Instead, Shane, a Baraboo native, has several Bay area gigs, including an opening act spot for The Wallflowers. Shane's Madison concert will begin at 9:30 p.m. at the Anchor Inn, 1970 Atwood Ave. The cover charge is $8. MAXIMUM INK - April 6, 2003 The former Wisconsinite has made her way to San Francisco and in turn found a gold mine of inspirations. The tight playing and blossoming skills at turning out solid tunes makes the guitar-driven disc a delight. Cascading twang and tender truths collide as her seductively husky voice makes for a delicious stew of folk-rock tunes that grows catchier with every listen without losing its initial honesty and sincerity. THE EXAMINER - January 16,2003 Don't call her Britney While dreamy-eyed Wallflowers front hunk Jacob Dylan practices looking aloof in a backstage mirror, Madison, Wis.-to-S.F. transplant Brittany Shane will be belting out her acoustic neo-folk up in The Fillmore's Poster Room/Lounge. A regular on the Bay Area coffeehouse/bar circuit, Shane has a noticeably country-influenced style and very personal -- and sometimes brutally honest -- lyrics that have drawn comparisons to other outspoken, heart-on-their-sleeve female artists like Patti Smith and the Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmons. Shane celebrates the release of her third album, "Decked Out," due out later this month. She's online at www.brittanyshane.com Back to the TOP |
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