American singer-songwriter Joan Shelley.Ebru Yildiz
On her languid song Over and Even, the woodsy singer-songwriter Joan Shelley offers an elegiac image: "Outside the river flows, its course unfolding / A strength it never knows, a sweet outpouring." The couplet could be used to describe the artist herself – a balladeer of the homespun, mesmerizing kind. Toronto audiences will get a spotlight look at the strumming Kentuckian when she opens for Wilco in March at Massey Hall, but those wishing for something more intimate will make their way on Jan. 21 to the Burdock Music Hall. There she will offer the soft-focus material of her 2015 album Over and Even, and perhaps a preview of her yet-to-be-titled forthcoming fourth LP, due out this spring. A folk singer with occasional gentle ideas on psychedelia, Shelley presents a trickling sort of poetry, drawing on English and Americana traditions. Though "timeless" is a word that gets thrown around freely, it finds a comfortable place with her.
Joan Shelley plays Jan. 21, 6:30 p.m. (sold out). Burdock Music Hall, 1184 Bloor St. W., 416-546-4033 or burdockto.com
Brad Wheeler