A clever cowboy known as Chanticleer to present folksy style at CD release
Chanticleer the Clever Cowboy.
The name sounds like the sidekick on an old-time Western movie or maybe a character on a children’s program. In reality, Chanticleer, the performing name of Andrew Shaw, is one of Salt Lake City’s best performers. And, he’s coming to Logan this Saturday night.
Recently, Chanticleer was recognized by City Weekly’s Slammy Awards, given to Utah’s best local performers, as one of the 30 things to like about local music in Salt Lake.
Shaw plays mostly solo acoustic music accompanied only by occasional harmonica, tambourine and whistling. His music ranges from traditional folk-country to folk-pop like Bright Eyes’ more folk-oriented work. He has a low-key style to his singing that helps his lyrics float over his guitar chords, although at times his voice becomes more forceful to give punch to the emotion of the song.
Shaw began playing music at a young age in Nebraska. He learned to play the piano, clarinet and euphonium, and he played in the marching band in high school. After that, he taught himself to play guitar. While studying at the University of Nebraska, he began to get more serious about his music while performing in the Lincoln folk scene.
After moving to Salt Lake City three years ago, Shaw performed in the band Adonis. However, the band became increasingly electric and rock-oriented, and he wanted an outlet for his folk interests. Shaw balances his solo work with his continued work as the lead singer and guitarist with Adonis as well as playing clarinet for Calico, another Salt Lake band.
Shaw said he has a musical theory of simplicity – “always trying to keep it simple.” Chanticleer has allowed him to write mostly acoustic songs with normal country chord progressions.
“Chanticleer is like going home,” Shaw said.
He found that the Salt Lake music scene was even more receptive to his folk sound than Nebraska. “The music scene is a lot richer and more diverse here,” Shaw said.
In his songwriting, Shaw also tries to follow his rule of simplicity by “singing about whatever is around” and writing mostly songs that come from his own personal experience. Mostly, his songs focus on the bittersweet ambiguities of love, loss and relationships gone wrong.
He said writing in the minimalist style is a mental exercise of “separating the wheat from the chaff” to find the essential parts of the song.
Shaw’s minimalist efforts result in sparse lyrics and music that always sounds a little raw with the emotions ringing true without embellishment. Lyrics like “My face just isn’t the same / I think the mirror forgot my name / It laughs and it cries but it’s just a disguise” show emotion through their combination of clever imagery and Shaw’s low-key but heartfelt vocals.
This weekend’s shows mark the release of Chanticleer’s first solo CD, “Live at Slowtrain.” Shaw chose to make his first recording a live album, which was recorded at a friend’s record store in downtown Salt Lake, because of the intimacy and simplicity of live recordings.
“Live albums have all the accidents that happen,” Shaw said. For example, during the song “Battle for Her Heart” on the Slowtrain show, someone dropped a CD case immediately following Shaw singing the lyrics “I’d gladly take the fall.”
The album’s intimate, sparse sound works well for Chanticleer’s music. The audience’s clapping and bits of conversation can be overhead in the background at times, only adding to the spontaneous and immediate feel of the album.
The album’s two best songs, “Battle for Her Heart” and “West of Here,” highlight the contrasting styles Chanticleer employs.
“Battle for Her Heart,” the opening song on “Live at Slowtrain” is the most upbeat song on the CD. It tells a mythic tale of knights on quests for love as a metaphor for unrequited love. While such an analogy might sound ludicrous or like a joke with some artists, Chanticleer treats it seriously, and it manages to bring out the emotion and reality behind the analogy.
Meanwhile, “West of Here” uses an ethereal guitar loop to set an eerie atmosphere which builds slowly from being a beautiful song about loss into a bittersweet tribute to someone who is gone. The song’s length – it clocks in at almost eight minutes – only adds to the mystery and beauty of the song.
While not all of Chanticleer’s songs are as consistently engaging as these two standouts (although he has several others that are very nearly as good), his clever lyrics and imagery with his sparse guitar accompaniment help to make his music consistently heartfelt and interesting.
Chanticleer the Clever Cowboy will perform at Citrus and Sage, located at 315 E. 300 South, on Saturday, Feb. 24, at 7:30 p.m. The show will also feature Libbie Linton and Tony Lang, and admission is free.
Tom Liljegren in the man with his finger on the pulse of the local music scene. You can contact him at tliljegren@cc.usu.edu.