Shannon Roy – Xperience History

Shannon Roy – Xperience History – by Seth Casale.

I sat down for a few minutes with Shannon Roy. Once described as “Stevie Nicks’ tough cousin” Shannon is a musician, and open mic host, an actress, a soldier deployed in the Army to Iraq, and Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, and a victim of a tragic fire at her home. Read on, dear reader to find out how she still always has a smile on her face, and why you need to hear her music.

RRX: You have a new album coming out, can you talk a little about that, and when it will be released?

SR: Yeah, the album is called “A Woman’s Soul” And Darryl Kniffen really stepped up and took the lead on production and taking care of mastering and securing the talent on the album. We finished it last year and then everything happened with the tragedy of my house, which threw a wrench into things but we just kept plugging away at it. The album release party will be on November 25th at Unihog in Hudson Falls, so that should be a great time.

RRX: You mentioned the tragedy at your home, can you tell me how that may have inspired part of this album or your work in general creatively?

SR: This year on January 18 at around 230 my dog woke me up, and my house was on fire. I live in a pretty rural area, so all the firefighters are volunteers, so step one was just to get the call out. It took about 45 minutes for the response to arrive, and in that time I lost practically everything including 2 of my cats. Prior to that, we had been recording this album in my basement. one of the fortunate things to come from this has been the support from the community, all my different communities have shown me. From my Army family to my music family, to my local community, everybody has been really wonderful. As part of that healing process, a good friend of mine, Vanessa Lewis went back into the house with me and we took some photographs. The artwork on this album is actually photos from my house after it had burned down, photos both from Vanessa and Josh Capen.

RRX: Wow, from the ashes of tragedy

SR: Yeah it was a really nice way to take something so tragic and make it better for me, make it a beautiful thing.

RRX: Then some local musicians held a benefit for you, that must have been pretty emotional for you, seeing how many played for you at that.

SR: It was incredible, there were between two to three hundred people that came out to Unihog for the benefit that they put on. It was almost overwhelming to see how many people came out to show me that love and support.

RRX: You’re writing these segues for me. You mentioned your military service, can you talk to me about your time in the military?

SR: I joined the Army when I was 19, did my basic training in Missouri, and my specialty school in Alabama, and ended up stationed in Fort Benning Georgia. Within a few months, we ended up being deployed to the Middle East on a 15-month tour from 2007 to 2009. During that timeframe, I did a few different things. My job was ammunition specialist, and I did do that for a little while, but when we changed bases I was put on the road as a rear gunner for a convoy escort team. We escorted civilian convoys to all points north towards Baghdad, and I was rear security.

RRX: Is there anything from your experience in the military or deployment specifically that you think has made you better prepared to be a great musician or has inspired you?

SR: Absolutely, one of the songs on the album was inspired by my military family. We all suffered a loss, a great woman we all served with lost her life in a fire last year. It was quite a blow for all of us, and it inspired the first song I ever wrote. Also, having that experience in the military and retaining that discipline really gave me a sense of knowing if I do set my mind to something I will accomplish it, it’s not a question of can I, it’s just how long is this going to take? That’s how I approach most things

RRX: Throughout all of that tragedy, how do you keep such a positive mindset? I’ve never seen you without a smile on your face.

SR: Honestly it’s taken a lot of practice, but during the timeframe that I was in Afghanistan, that’s when I really worked on it, and really dove into Yoga and a couple of different meditations around truly staying present in the moment and what that means to different people. If you’re making it good and fun, any moment there’s nothing to be sad about. What happened yesterday, what happened a few months ago, that’s not current, not this moment that we’re in so there’s no sense in letting it take over that moment because I think each moment is very special.

RRX: You have also played Patsy Kline in a musical. Can you tell me about that?

SR: Absolutely, the owners of the Fort Salem theater one night and heard me singing, they mentioned they were doing a play of Patsy Kline music called “Love Always, Patsy Kline”. It’s the story of Patsy and one of her fans who then became one of her best friends told from the perspective of the friend. They asked me if I’d like to audition, I didn’t know any of her songs at the time so I decided on my long drive home I’d learn one. I auditioned with “Crazy” and they loved it. I played Patsy Kline and learned 32 of her songs in a month. It was so much fun, and by the last show, I was so sad that it was over.

RRX: Legend has it that you even laugh like Patsy Kline.

SR: This last thing is so ridiculous, one of the women I used to tend bar with got one of those teddy bears that you can record a message with, and she brought me into the kitchen and was telling me jokes. I started laughing, She recorded the laugh, and to this day behind the bar sits a teddy bear with my laugh. If anyone ever needs a pick-me-up they can just give the bear a squeeze and hear my laugh.

RRX: Can you tell me about your performance with Tommy Love in Atlantic City?

SR: Tommy had come in for, a benefit and I had come off stage and Tommy had been really impressed with one of the songs I’d done. He asked me if I’d ever be interested in singing as Janis Joplin. I said “Sign me up”, I got the feather boas and learned more about her delivery and how she moved on stage. It was very rough on my vocals but it was so much fun.

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