What is a Shepherdess? A girl or woman who herds, guards, and tends sheep. A virtuous soul living close to nature while faithfully minding her flock. There is that definition, and then there is ours: Shepherdess is a Boston band that rocks.
The group will be shepherding their first, eponymous album onto the national stage August 22, 2007 with the aid of Boston indie institution Kimchee Records. The ten song micro-epic by singer/guitarist/pedal-hopper Hilken Mancini (Fuzzy, Punk Rock Aerobics), violinist/baritone guitarist Emily Arkin (The Operators), bassist Winston Braman (Come, Consonant) and drummer Mike Savage (Count Me Outs, Fudge) is hot off the pro-tools, recorded by Andy Hong at Kimchee Studios and mastered at Peerless by engineer Jeff Lipton.
The collection of ambitious songs from their debut CD veers from heart-felt folk to balls-out rock with blistering guitar solos, glimmering vocals, and singular meldings of traditional instruments with bizarre effects. The end result can be compared only to Cat Power on speed. Or perhaps Kate Bush fronting The Wipers. Or Captain Beefheart falling, hitting his head, and waking up believing that he is Built to Spill.
Shepherdess has played shows individually and together with the likes of Dinosaur Jr., Mission of Burma, Mike Watt, Juliana Hatfield, Chris Colbourn of Buffalo Tom, Barbara Manning, Bush Tetras, The Lemonheads, and many, many more. Hilken Mancini's last release on Kimchee Records was distributed throughout Europe, followed by an extensive European tour with Juliana Hatfield, and reviewed widely in Mojo, Spin, and beyond. The tour for this album begins this summer, with a Northeast Corridor jaunt.
And so we invite you now to join Shepherdess in their field, keeping watch over their flock by night, as they rock, verily.
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