San Francisco Examiner Interview With Shana Morrison

San Francisco Examiner
Shana Morrison’s back making music

Shana Morrison’s famous father, Van Morrison, has had a rather high profile lately, not only with his special “Astral Weeks” concerts, but in countless interviews the usually quiet Celt has granted to promote the rare events.

“Every magazine, every newspaper, every TV show — my dad’s there,” Shana says. “He talked to more press in the past year than in the previous 20 years combined. People were running up to me going, ‘Did you know Van’s on “Regis” right now?’ He surprised everybody.”

Shana — a blustery blues belter in her own right — often accompanies her father onstage. But not this time.

In fact, since the 2007 solo disc “That’s Who I Am” on her own Belfast Violet Records, the Mill Valley resident has kept an almost nonexistent profile locally; she’s finally emerging Sunday in her hometown with the Hippie Chick Twang SheBang, a special in-the-round evening with three other songwriters, Kim McLean, Devon O’Day and Eve Selis.

Where exactly has she been for the past two years?
For a hint, Morrison points to her once flaming red mane, now trimmed shoulder-length short and dyed a more timid brown.

For months now, she says, she’s been living the office life in Palo Alto, working 60 hours a week for a new Internet startup that prequalifies prospective employees for high-tech positions.

“Companies like Yahoo and Google have so many applications coming in, so we screen them through our Web site,” she says. “They want to be a Java programmer? They do the Java test. And we also do personality tests, math and logic and English tests.”

The singer only returned to Mill Valley, and her songwriting, a month ago.

“As a musician, you have to diversify,” Shana says. “You wear different hats, do different jobs to balance everything out. And it’s great to take my mind off music for awhile. When I come back, I’m always refreshed and reinvigorated.”

That’s how she hit on her novel SheBang concept, an evening of serious female composers trading songs and stories that’s already wowed Nashville. O’Day even launched an Internet radio station at live365.com called the Hippie Chick Twang Cast, featuring similar artists.

It feels great to be back, says Shana, who actually took some of her company’s tests before she left.

“I got a bad grade on the English one,” she says. “And then I did the personality test, and the results said, ‘You should never attempt to do anything creative, and you will never be a leader.’ So I’ve wasted my entire life!”
-Tom Lanham

IF YOU GO
The Hippie Chick Twang SheBang with Shana Morrison
Where: Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton, Mill Valley
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $18 to $25
Contact: (415) 383-9600, www.142throckmortontheatre.com