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Beaver Valley singer-songwriter Shannon O’Donovan releases her first full-length album

Beaver Valley musician will take the stage at Arts on the Fly Sept. 2

Beaver Valley’s Shannon O’Donovan will be dropping her first album, Pockets of Time, on Sept. 2, 2022.

The album will go live on the same day the Cariboo singer-songwriter takes the stage at the Arts on the Fly Music Festival.

She has already released one single from the album as well as a music video for the track.

Her warm lyrics and rich voice tell stories of her life, filled with motherhood, rural life and transitioning to the Cariboo from a more urban lifestyle in Canmore, Alta. She said the style of her music “crosses genres, including indie folk and country,” perhaps a natural product of a childhood spent hearing her dad listen to Johnny Cash, Simon and Garfunkel and The Beatles.

The album’s title is a line from one of the songs which she said is an appropriate description for an album she made in the small pockets of time she could manage to find in her busy life as a mom of three boys.

“Pursuing music is a bit of a sideline for me,” explained O’Donovan.

The song is called Shifting Gears, and she wrote it about her move to the Cariboo about four years ago. While her husband is from the area, she came from the Yukon originally.

And while they had a great life in Canmore with their three children, it was also expensive, and they felt they were looking for a greater connection to the land, more diversity and wanted to be able to grow their own food.

O’Donovan was a bit afraid initially of leaving behind their recreational lifestyle to something very different.

But she has settled in to the Cariboo. When she took the stage for Performances in the Park on July 7, she felt really at home.

“Looking out at the audience I recognized so many faces,” she said. Singing the song about her move to the area for the Cariboo audience felt good.

She said she used to mostly sing for herself and her family, but since moving to the area O’Donovan finds herself on the stage more than ever.

So she decided to pursue a grant with the Canada Council for the Arts and she was awarded the grant to create her first release.

Brandon Hoffman has produced and recorded the album for her.

“He has been an amazing support system for getting me to do this,” said O’Donovan.

The single Life is already available to stream on Bandcamp and the full album will be available there to download starting Sept. 2.

Read more: Williams Lake reboots Performances in the Park for 2022



ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com

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Ruth Lloyd

About the Author: Ruth Lloyd

After moving back to Williams Lake, where I was born and graduated from school, I joined the amazing team at the Williams Lake Tribune in 2021.
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