Hit Pick

In the liner notes to Ties That Bind, singer-songwriter Sally Shuffield‘s second CD, there are antique photographs surrounded by dried rose petals and Chantilly lace — presumably, the people pictured are somehow related and dear to Shuffield’s life and experience. There’s a feeling of reflection, a reverence in the presentation that’s well-suited to the earnest, soul-searching music that Shuffield writes. A mountain girl by birth — Shuffield grew up in rural Arkansas, where she and her sister, Alice, passed time listening to and singing along with their grandfather’s Ozark folk music — Shuffield cites the country soulster Iris Dement as one of her purest influences; throughout the thirteen songs on Ties That Bind, Shuffield does capture that performer’s ability to make a sparse melody soar. Aided by her friends Celeste Krenz and Runaway Truck Ramp mandolinist Greg Schochet, Shuffield’s ties to the area’s country and bluegrass community are bound even more tightly with this release. Catch her Saturday, June 23, at the Little Bear in Evergreen.