Tess Liautaud & Jess Shanks
Tess Liautaud and Jessie Rose Shanks weave a sound as old as the hills, a little bit sage, a touch playful and full to the brim with heart.
The music of Franco-American singer-songwriter Tess Liautaud cannot be easily defined. It hangs in the balance of her voice, warm like honey; it carries a depth of raw emotion, delivered with melodic grace and old-time soul.
Her songs are easy listening, in that Jackson Browne, dreaming of Laurel Canyon, Americana sort of way and together this is music that will grow roots in your heart and lift you up, the way it is supposed to.
“It is warm and giving, open and true, devoid of pretension, gentle and full of heart, It sounds beautiful and everything is in its right place . A special balm for jolting times.'' - Adam McGrath
Having traversed the countryside for the last fifteen or so years in New Zealand’s hardest working band The Eastern, Jessie Shanks is a renowned guitar picking, banjo frailing, foot stomper with a sweet southern voice.
The Eastern are a string band that roars like a punk band, that swings like a gospel band, that drinks like a country band, that works like a bar band, that hopes like folk singers, and sings love songs like union songs, and writes union songs like love songs, and wants to slow dance and stand on tables, all at the same time.
Four albums and well over 2000 shows deep The Eastern have played and toured with Fleetwood Mac, Steve Earle and Old Crow Medicine Show amongst others, ticking off miles, countries and 200 plus shows a year every year.
‘No Depression’ magazine noted they were “One of the best modern roots acts, from any country”. Both Radio NZ and the NZ Herald described them as “National Treasures” and The Heralds Graham Reid called singer Adam McGrath “NZ’s toughest minded songwriter”. NZ country legend Barry Saunders simply called them “The Truth.”
Together, Jessie Rose Shanks and Tess Liautaud have cultivated their own unique approach to roots music, writing and performing folk ballads and country twangers steeped in time and place. Always searching, sometimes going down deep, brushing with melancholy and finding harmony in the spaces between.
Tess’s links:
Jess's links: