Off the Beaten Pathos

Singer-songwriter Shelley Short comes on like a lo-fi Neko Case – perhaps more intimate and delicate than her fellow Pacific Northwesterner – but with no less pathos in her pretty voice. When she sings, “By the time I go to pieces/You’ll be gone,” in the song “Like Anything, It’s Small,” Short announces her fragility soft and clear.

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• Portland (Oregon)
• Neko Case
• Tiffany Kowalski
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Indie Rock and Indie Pop

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Short, who performs Saturday, May 23, at Trunk Space, 1506 Grand Avenue, hails from (where else?) Portland, Oregon. She fled there in 2004 for a brief stay in Chicago, where she let that city’s bastard-country vibe inform her otherwise pop-folk sound. She then left for Los Angeles to record her most recent album, the highly praised Water for the Day, which features appearances by indie-pop luminaries such as Rachel Blumberg (Decemberists, M Ward) on drums and Tiffany Kowalski (Bright Eyes) on violin.