Shannon and Natalie

It all started when Shannon and Natalie were middle-schoolers in a small Long Island town. It was a place where the air was characterized by a faint smell of manure and where the hottest hangout spot was it’s grocery store. However, you wouldn’t find the 7th grade Shannon and Natalie hanging out behind the strip mall. Shannon, who was the only seventh grader around who could play jazz chords on guitar, encouraged her friend from chorus to start playing electric bass. Her friend from chorus was, of course, Natalie. The girls started practicing songs together, and once the band was formed, there was an amazing transformation. Previously known as two girls with the names Shannon and Natalie, they became… (drum roll please)… SHANNON AND NATALIE. Instead of hanging out behind the strip mall, they’d be playing for cash in front of the nearest ice cream shop or singing Beach Boys songs to their peers (who’d simultaneously be enthralled and confused as to who the Beach Boys were exactly).

Now, seven years later, these troubadours are still going strong. They progressed from playing open mic nights at the local coffee shop, to booking their own shows all across the state, making their way to famous venues such as The Knitting Factory and The Bitter End in NYC. They started out playing the popular rock covers, steadily branching off into other genres like folk, jazz, and blues, and soon moved on to writing their own songs. Their original songs are what currently hold the attention of listeners, with a sound uniting the modern and old, taking the homegrown feel of folk and adding a playful and hip style to it. In their songs you’ll find tight melodic vocal harmonies, carefully arranged over the instrumentation of guitar and bass (sometimes mandolin and piano), all of which is juxtaposed with quirky lyrics. Basically, at any given performance, audience members are not sure whether to cry (tears of joy, of course), laugh, tilt their heads to the side like confused dogs, or flat out get up and shimmy around the venue. Chances are they will do three out of the four.

Song-writing is done by both members, often Shannon writes the music and Natalie does the lyrics. However, sometimes Shannon writes a complete song, Natalie writes one, they work together on an idea, Natalie proposes a melody, Shannon writes a poem or they just pay someone to do it (joking on that last one).

Temporarily, 300 miles of New York state land have separated the band because the girls are studying at different colleges. They mostly play shows in the winter and summer months, but are completely able and planning on performing around upstate New York during the semester. Despite their distance, they work individually on new and old songs while apart. When they do finally get together, it is like fitting the last piece into a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and some really catchy tunes are produced.




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