Brittany Shane, all rights reserved
Brittany Shane, self-titled EP. The Wisconsin native’s engaging vocals stand out on this six-song set of Americana-leaning pop and rock tunes that feature backing from prominent locals including guitarist Brad Rice, drummer Brian Ferguson and backing singer Noelle Hampton. Release show Aug. 12 at Central Market Westgate.
Supported by an able-bodied posse of seasoned players, steady, centered Baraboo native and Austin transplant Brittany Shane keeps a level-head, if just this side of a second wind, on her crackling new mini-album. A pleasant collection upon first listen and a rewarding restorative after many more, Brittany’s brave-face grace and double-down directness connects the half-dozen tracks into a rich song-cycle orbiting love’s push and pull. A singer-songwriter, dancer and Mom; all parts of Shane’s personality come together in this self-titled work with poise, discipline and affection apparent in every line. A beacon projecting calm resolve and soft-spoken strength, Shane’s patience reins in the crashing guitars, restless rhythms and runaway twang to make her sixth album a testament to taming wild hearts and reaping life’s rewards.
Baraboo News Republic – August 1, 2018, Ben Bromley
As far as Brittany Shane is concerned, No. 6 is No. 1.
The musician who graduated from Baraboo High School in 1995 as Brittany Safranek has released her sixth album, self-titled using her stage name. She said it’s her best work yet. “It really captures me, my band and how I sound live,” Shane said.
“Brittany Shane” is available on iTunes, at amazon.com and at her own website, brittanyshane.com. She’s holding a release party Aug. 12 in her home of Austin, Texas. “The hard part is getting it into the hands of everyone,” Shane said.
The album has been in the works for five years, interrupted by the arrival of her son, Oliver. She wrote half the songs before his birth, the other half after. They address themes of love, loss and moving on with a rock ’n’ roll sound.
The Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail once said Shane “mixes the lilt of Stevie Nicks with the power of Sheryl Crow.” Shane got her start performing at the Memorial Union while attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She released her first two albums in Madison before selling one of her guitars for a one-way ticket to California. She started performing there, alongside such acts as Chris Isaak and Liz Phair, in 2001. By 2009 she was opening for Heart, Foreigner and Peter Frampton and playing an 80-city U.S. tour.
She found Austin was her favorite stop, as it reminded her of Madison. Shane visited Texas and decided to stay. Today she performs live every couple weeks, which means bearing 110-degree heat.“You have to be tough if you want to play music in Austin,” she said.
Shane’s songs have been used in several television shows, including a tune she wrote about her father Clem’s morning visits to the Alpine Café in Baraboo, which was featured on “Rizzoli & Isles” in 2014. Several of her songs provided much of the score of the independent film “The Village Barbershop” in 2010.
Away from the microphone, she spends her time caring for her 2-year-old son, who inspired her new hobby, writing children’s books. She said the rhyming, rhythmic wording of children’s books reminded her of writing songs. So she’s giving it a try. “It’s kind of an easy transition,” she said.
She and her husband strive to make annual visits to Baraboo. Her family played a key role in creating the album’s artwork, with her brother Dustin Safranek snapping photographs and her uncle Mike Grunder handling graphic design.
“I feel like it’s my best album yet,” she said.
ALPINE GETS NATIONAL NOTICE
Baraboo News Republic – July 2014
A Baraboo native’s song about a downtown restaurant is going national.
On Tuesday evening, Brittany Shane’s “Have Heart, Live Young” will be heard on the TNT television drama “Rizzoli and Isles.” It will play in the background during a scene at a café, which is fitting given that Shane wrote it about her father’s daily visits to the Alpine Restaurant.
“It brings back great memories of going there with my dad,” she said.
A 1995 Baraboo High School graduate, Shane is a professional musician in Austin, Texas. She wrote “Have Heart, Live Young” about her father, Clem Safranek, and his morning visits to the Alpine. He used to bring his four children there for breakfast every morning. Now that they’re grown and living all over the U.S., he writes them notes or sends them text messages while enjoying his toast and coffee.
Safranek said he misses those daily family meetings, and is honored to have inspired a song. “Have Heart, Live Young” is about the advice he imparts in those notes, encouraging Shane to slow down, live like a child, enjoy the little things and keep her heart open.
“Sometimes you don’t know what good you’ve done right away,” Safranek said. “I think the kids are saying, ‘Hey, he might’ve said something that might’ve been worthwhile.’”
Shane makes a living teaching children and playing gigs at wineries and parties. She recently released a new album — her fifth — titled “Loud Nights on a Short String.” The song airing Tuesday evening is from a previous album, recorded when Shane was in San Francisco. A friend sent the song to a placement agent, without Shane’s knowledge, who in turn passed it along to TNT. It made the cut.
“It was actually a surprise,” she said.
Shane insists upon visiting the Alpine during her visits home. She loves its unchanging décor and community of friendly regulars. “Hopefully more people will go to the Alpine in Baraboo when they hear it,” she said. “I tell everyone here in Texas about Baraboo.”
Her father is just pleased he didn’t inspire one of those “woe is me” country songs. “It wasn’t about my bad habits,” he said with a laugh.
Wisconsin-raised guitarist-songwriter Brittany Shane, has opened for veteran rock acts such as Foreigner, Heart, and Peter Frampton. She moved to San Francisco in 2000 to write, sing and perform her brand of 1990s-influenced alternative rock. Shane has worked with Joe Chiccarelli (production work with The White Stripes), Zack Smith (formerly of Scandal), Scrappy Jud Newcomb (of Ian McLagan’s Bump Band), and Dony Wynn (formerly of Robert Palmer?s band). Her music has been featured in the indie film and critical success The Village Barbershop (2008) and on the channels E!, A&E, Oxygen, and even a Hyundai TV commercial. In this interview, Brittany talks about her latest album Loud Nights On A Short String and more.
It’s been more than a decade since Brittany Shane did what many musicians dream of: She sold her guitar for a one-way plane ticket west.
Eighteen year old Baraboo native Brittany Safranek moved to San Francisco with plans to stay a year before hitting L.A. She established herself as a folk-singer, recording three well-received CDs and rubbing elbows with celebrities from Peter Frampton to Chris Isaak, but ten years, a name change and a half a dozen day jobs later Brittany Shane decided to pull up stakes again and make Austin her new home. Part of her reason was how much it reminded her of Madison. Two years and already an established fixture with weekly gigs, Brittany revisits Wisconsin this July with a sparkling new CD, “Loud Nights on a Short String,” and many warm memories.
by Jeremy Burchard
Loud Nights captures a level of musical exploration indicative of Shane’s growth. You won’t hear the same drum sound twice on the record: a noticeable amount of detail went into sculpting a rhythm section unique with every tune. Sometimes it’s subtle, as in “Paper and Pen”; elsewhere it’s in our face, as with “Don’t Let Me,” adding a level of almost spastic energy. Vocally, Shane floats around a melody with a Sheryl Crowe-like sensibility. Indeed, the whole album is glued together by Shane’s steadily persistent vocals, which feel perfectly at home in “Fun Here,” “Summer Calling” and “Hazy Rose.” Much like the music, Shane’s lyrics vary from finely tuned simplicity to the esoteric. Recorded in 11 days in the sweltering summer heat of Austin, Loud Nights on a Short String is Shane’s most musically interesting offer to date.
Guitarist, songwriter, and singer Brittany Shane’s latest full-length Loud Nights On a Short String, has inflections of Sheryl Crow, and The Bangles, and The Sundays which enhance the summer ambience of this album. The love poem introduction “Paper And Pen” unearths a light groove and serves as a marker of what will follow, evidenced by the folk-tinted “Summer Calling” and the acoustic aura of the yearning “Come Around,” which could be interpreted as a call for optimism.