Shawna Virago: "Bright Green Ideas" video

Shawna Virago has a made a video for Bright Green Ideas, a track from her Blood In Her Dreams album: a mix of broad strokes and intricate details, a musical quilt that fits her like a glove."

» shawnavirago.com

HCTF review of Blood In Her Dreams.

Shawna Virago: "Climb To The Bottom" video

Shawna Virago has a made a video for Climb To The Bottom, a track from her Blood In Her Dreams album: a mix of broad strokes and intricate details, a musical quilt that fits her like a glove."

» shawnavirago.com

HCTF review of Blood In Her Dreams.

HCTF's best of 2024 (15-11)

• 20-16
• |
• 15-11
• |
• 10-6
• |
• 5-1

» Best of playlist

» Listen here

HCTF's annual list of the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come. As per usual many genres are represented. Here Comes The Flood covers a lot of ground and it shows in this eclectic, final tally.

Today: countdown from number 15 to 11.

Please shop at your local record store. Most of the stores have a pretty good website where you can order your stuff. It might even be cheaper than the big ones on the 'net. The folks who work there know their stuff and can recommend artists you might like.

Buy directly from the artist, attend live shows and stop by the merch table. And be sure to tell your friends about that great new act you discovered. Word-of-mouth can't be beat as the prime source to discover new music.

Shawna Virago: "Blood In Her Dreams" video

Shawna Virago has a made a video for Blood In Her Dreams, the title track from her new album: "(...) a mix of broad strokes and intricate details, a musical quilt that fits her like a glove."

» shawnavirago.com

HCTF review of Blood In Her Dreams.

Shawna Virago: "Ghosts Cross State Lines" video

Shawna Virago has a made a video for Ghosts Cross State Lines, a track from her Blood In Her Dreams album: "a mix of broad strokes and intricate details, a musical quilt that fits her like a glove."

» shawnavirago.com

HCTF review of Blood In Her Dreams.

Shawna Virago: "The Barman's Daughter" video

Shawna Virago has a made a video for The Barman's Daughter, a track from her Blood In Her Dreams album: "(...) a mix of broad strokes and intricate details, a musical quilt that fits her like a glove."

» shawnavirago.com

HCTF review of Blood In Her Dreams.

Shawna Virago: Blood In Her Dreams

photo: Lindsay Gauthier

BEST OF 2024
15
HCTF

Singer and guitarist Shawna Virago is back with Blood In Her Dreams, the long overdue follow-up to her Heaven Sent Delinquent album. Once again, she taps into the well of punk, rock, rockabilly and country to give Americana a few pointers about her life as a transgender woman. She takes on boozing, travel, love affairs and plans that go South are told with a mix of bravado, swagger and regret. Getting accepted in C & W circles was an uphill battle, but she persisted. And won.

With a ton of catchy guitar riffs up her sleeve and the knack lay down swinging bass lines Virago commandeers the spotlights. Her vocal delivery is pretty relaxed, but also packs a punch. There might be mention of a "rhinestone suit" in Suzie Texas (Take Her/Break Her), but that is all that adds some colour in her bleak life. Ghosts Cross State Lines is a semi-autobiographical song about a transwoman trying to get away from her past. The Barman’s Daughter does not shed a tear after her lover dies from a heart attack after he helped himself to some cash from the till. She pulls the veil of the romantic notion anyone might have about working girls in Last Girl, Chapter 1.

HCTF's best of 2017 (10-6)

• 20-16
• |
• 15-11
• |
• 10-6
• |
• 5-1

» Best of playlist

» Listen here

HCTF's annual list of the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come. The long list of memorable releases boasted about 50 albums. Tough decisions were made narrowing it down. As per usual it's a mixed bag of genres: rock in its various incarnations (garage, hard, post, prog), avant-garde, jazz, pop, folk, funk. Also of note: four live albums made the cut.

Today: countdown from number 10 to 6.

Please keep in mind to shop at your local record store, buy directly from the artist, attend live shows. And shut the fuck up while the band is playing.

Shawna Virago: Heaven Sent Delinquent

photo: Lydia Daniller

BEST OF 2017
7
HCTF

Does it matter that Frisco based singer and guitarist Shawna Virago is a transgender? No, it doesn't when appraising the music as such, but since pretty all of the lyrics on her Heaven Sent Delinquent deal with being accepted as such it becomes clear that she has run into her fair share of misunderstandings, discrimination, and all out harassment. No wonder she picked elements of punk, folk and good ol' outlaw country as the main genres for her music.

Virago means female warrior with masculine strength, a fitting stage name for a woman who fights the good fight through her music. It's just her and her acoustic guitar, the classic set up for a protest singer. Her vocals contains a twangy snarl, while she sings about relationships (Gender Armageddon, Heaven Sent Delinquent), sexual innuendo (Last Night’s Sugar, The Pleasure Car), and politics (Lands of Guns and Honey).