Shana Cleveland bringing a musical taste of rural California to the Beachland Ballroom

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Shana Cleveland is coming to Cleveland.

The singer-songwriter-guitarist, maybe finest identified for fronting the indie rock band La Luz has additionally maintained a gig as a solo artist. Her newest and third solo album total, the mellow and meditative “Manzanita,” launched in March, is bringing Cleveland to Cleveland for a present at 8 p.m. on the Beachland Ballroom on Wednesday, April 26, with MAITA and John’s Little Sister opening. Tickets are $15 and can be found at Ticketweb.

Cleveland quietly launched her quiet debut solo album on cassette, “Oh Man, Cowl the Floor,” in 2011. The album was widespread sufficient to ultimately be picked up and reissued by Suicide Squeeze in 2015.

Subsequent got here “Night time of the Worm Moon,” in 2019, which expanded her sound a bit however saved the give attention to her vocals lounging over tender mattress of guitars and cello. Although La Luz’s storage surf-pop sound isn’t usually aggressive, Cleveland’s solo work exists in a a lot quieter and calm sonic house.

“Manzanita” was recorded in separate classes in Seattle throughout and after her being pregnant, which produced her son Ozzy. There was a splash of the pandemic shutdown thrown in for good measure.

The album is called for the small evergreen tree native to California, the place Cleveland lives with Ozzy, his father and her accomplice, Will Sprott, keyboardist and member of Shannon & The Clams. The trio lives in Grass Valley, about 100 miles north of the Bay Space, and rural California is nearly a personality all through the album.

“It’s a kind of a personality in the whole lot I write now as a result of I’m such a nature lady,” Cleveland mentioned from a tour cease in New York Metropolis.

“I used to be attempting to provide you with a one-sentence approach of describing (the album). I referred to as it a love album set within the California wilderness, and that’s in all probability the best approach. However, after all, love is unusual. To me, this document feels very comforting and really meditative, However while you hear, it’s actually darkish, too, and for some purpose, that’s all the time been a part of what comforts me.

“You understand, if I hear one thing that’s simply wanting on the vivid facet, that by no means actually appears like the reality to me. It’s by no means been my factor. So, it’s bizarre how unhappy music can sort of make you’re feeling good. I feel it may make you’re feeling seen and in a approach that feels extra actual typically,” she mentioned.

Raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Cleveland attended school in Chicago, the place she majored in poetry, performed music and discovered the DIY ethos from the native indie scene. Then she moved to Seattle and fashioned The Curious Thriller, which launched two albums for the legendary indie label Okay Data within the late 2000′s. In 2012, Cleveland and buddies fashioned La Luz, along with her as lead guitarist and vocalist. The trio has launched 4 well-regarded albums of their tuneful surf-infused guitar rock, together with their most up-to-date self-titled launch from 2021.

On “Manzanita,” Cleveland’s mellow, gently layered, near-ethereal vocals float alongside on a music mattress of her acoustic guitar. Her regular, nimble fingerpicking type is highlighted all through, together with the gently pulsing and darkish “Evil Eye” and the instrumentals “Bonanza Freeze” and “Sheriff of the Salton Sea.”

Cleveland’s voice and guitar are augmented all through by Sprott, who provides some tasteful synthesizer, some selection mellotron, organs and different keyboard devices. Additionally including to the naturalistic, dreamy, and mellow vibes is Olie Eshleman on pedal metal, who’s featured prominently on the “Mayonnaise.” The album’s engineer Johnny Goss and Cleveland’s former La Luz bandmate Abbey Blackwell add electrical and upright bass respectively.

The album is crammed with quiet odes to rural California, nature, love, and the modifications inherent in giving delivery to a brand new particular person with somebody you like. The tune, “Ten Hour Drive By way of West Coast Catastrophe” lets Cleveland flex her poetic muscle tissue, reciting, “Noticed the flames and fireplace planes over Shasta, Cattle farms out of horror movies, Will you discover a option to love this world?”

The poem set to music relies on an actual expertise. Cleveland and her household had been driving again to Grass Valley from a recording session in Seattle and noticed the devastating aftermath of the California wildfires whereas returning to their pretty, tranquil chunk of nature.

“It’s coming for everyone, proper? So, it’s particularly unusual as a brand new dad or mum. You’re similar to, `What am I doing? What did I convey a brand new life into?’ You understand?” Cleveland mentioned.

“So, I simply wished to talk to that, however then the tune ends with us standing by a waterfall, this overwhelming drive of nature. However that’s stunning, and seeing my son chortle and simply sort of be scared however chortle on the similar time. I assumed it simply felt like a second that made me really feel like, it was OK in any case to convey a brand new life into the world. It was stunning to see that appreciation that love of magnificence with the worry that comes with it,” she mentioned.