Shannon McNally - "Bohemian Wedding Prayer"

Shannon McNally: A new blues-rock singer updating sounds old and Gritty

"Don't you know that I love you when you're down and dirty," sings Shannon McNally on her hook-filled debt, Jukebox Sparrows (Capitol). Her predilection for grit and rawness is obvious: The 27-year-old Long Island native sings with bluesy abandon and displays a fervent love of the live band dynamics of classic rock. "I wanted lots of real drums," she says. "I was adamant about not having any computer sounds on there. I didn't want it to be categorizable, but I did want to make pop music." And she succeeds, with songs that draw on the past--gutsy soul, southern rock and '70s AM radio--while somehow sounding contemporary. If this isn't what pop music sounds like in 2002, it should.

McNally is not worried about her glamour undercutting her rootsy authenticity. "I look at Dolly Parton," she says. "Here's a woman who had it all and used it all. There's this idea that I wouldn't be taken seriously if my picture is too pretty. But I figure whoever is going to get my music is going to get it, no matter how I look."