Shanna in a Dress was named the winner of the 2022 Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriter Showcase that took place at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons, Colorado on the festival’s opening day, August 12. As the first-place winner, the Nashville, Tennessee-based singer-songwriter receives a main stage slot during next year’s festival, as well as a Taylor 7 series acoustic guitar and a $400 cash award.
Shanna in a Dress
“The really fun part about it [the Songwriter Showcase] for me was that I was faced with the decision ‘be myself and have fun or play to win,’ Shanna told AcousticMusicScene.com. “I’ve been myself in song contests in the past and been discounted for being too quirky or talking to the audience too much. This time I told myself I’m going to get to play this stage eventually no matter what the results of the contest are, so I might as well be myself. And it worked.”
She admits to having initially fretted over what two songs to perform in the showcase since you don’t have to play the ones that you entered. While acknowledging that her funny autobiographical song “Wanna Go Out ” is “wordy and too quirky for a song contest,” she performed it anyway –- along with “A Face Like Yours,” a heartbreakingly beautiful song that she notes came to the world in Wildflower Pavilion for a song school open mic performance.
Here’s a link to a video of a live performance of “A Face Like Yours”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK-4BzH9GP8
Shanna credits the song school for changing the trajectory of her life. She has been going to it for six or seven years and considers it her favorite week of the year. A clever wordsmith, she pens smart but accessible and often quirky lyrics that have drawn accolades in recent years. As accurately noted in the bio that appears on her website: In her songs, she says what everyone is thinking but no one else will say, and you’ll get an uncensored journey of clever humor and heartbreak, along with a hefty side of entertainment at her shows that are also noted for her spontaneous banter and playful stage presence. She accompanies herself primarily on guitar but also, occasionally, piano and ukulele.
Here’s a link to a video of Shanna performing “Wanna Go Out”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsTc161GyGI
Shanna in a Dress –- who started her musical career while a student at the University of Virginia — released her crowd-funded debut album, Robot, in May. An avid bicyclist, she biked from Seattle to Boston last summer while music touring on her epic ‘Tour de Dress,’ during which she played more than 60 shows from coast-to-coast and partnered up with Pangaea World Foundation, a global nonprofit organization. In 2020, Shanna was named a winner in the prestigious Kerrville New Folk Competition, as well as the winner of the Great River Folk Fest Song Competition, a finalist in the Songwriter Serenade in Texas, and a Grassy Hill Emerging Artist at the virtual Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.
As accurately noted in the bio that appears on her website: “In her songs, she says what everyone is thinking but no one else will say, and you’ll get an uncensored journey of clever humor and heartbreak, along with a hefty side of entertainment at her shows that are also noted for her spontaneous banter and playful stage presence.” Shanna in a Dress accompanies herself primarily on guitar and also plays piano and ukulele.
Singer-songwriters in Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriter Showcase are judged on the quality of their songs’ composition, vocal delivery, and the overall performance. A nationally recognized annual singer-songwriter competition, it is open to anyone who writes and performs original music and who is not currently signed to a major recording and publishing deal.
The other finalists in this year’s competition — all of whom also received cash awards and were afforded the opportunity to perform songwriter-in-the-round sets over the weekend — were (in alphabetical order) Sienna Christi, Daphne Gale, Sadie Gustafson Zook, Halley Neal, Tim Ostdiek, Carolyn Shulman, May Smith, Taylor Tuke, and Lacey Williams. Hundreds of singer-songwriters submit applications each year.
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