It’s said that getting out of your own head allows you to look at the world from a different perspective. There’s a way to lock into the endless wonder of human existence through songs that take the wide view, tell stories that lift us up and remind us of how rich life can be. On Tai Shan’s just announced new album Traveling Show, (out April 3rd) turns the stories she’s heard into music and lyrics you can live with, like a trusted companion who knows just when to talk and when to listen. Fusing soul, jazz, and pop, she creates an intimate space for reflection. Traveling Show is soulful, surprising, and uplifting even when Shan writes about the difficulties and disappointments that everyone undergoes that, by contrast, shine a light on what makes us happy.
A major element of Traveling Show, which Shan started recording in Seattle before making the move to Nashville in 2018, is soul. Shan makes the kind of emotional connections that role models like Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye explored. With hints of jazz in her nuanced singing and songwriting – Shan is a serious practitioner of the slightly unexpected chord change, the beguiling harmonic shift – taking the concept of the singer-songwriter to new levels on Traveling Show. She is indeed a serious student of American songwriting, and she’s used her vast knowledge to teach the art of matching words to music to multitudes of students who have learned from her example. Traveling Show is a masterclass in the art of deceptive simplicity. It is, after all, about the stories, and the emotions within them.
