Sarah Shannon

Indie pop vocalist Sarah Shannon, based in Washington, D.C., served as lead singer and central figure in Velocity Girl. The band’s three albums from the early 1990s—Copacetic, Simpatico, and Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts—recast the British shoegazer sound into an original style all their own. After Velocity Girl disbanded in 1996, Shannon assembled the short-lived Starry Eyes, a project that dissolved once it issued a lone EP in 1997. She next launched a modest solo career, self-releasing the EP Estheraho on her Marzipan label in 1999, then signing with the fledgling The Casa Recording Company—established by the Posies’ Ken Stringfellow—and delivering her self-titled full-length debut in early 2002. Following a five-year pause devoted to marriage and motherhood plus a relocation to Seattle, Shannon joined Minty Fresh in spring 2006. Her long-awaited second album, City Morning Song, produced by Martin Feveyear (Mark Lanegan, Crooked Fingers, Rosie Thomas), appeared in February 2007.