Shana Falana at Wild Joe’s

After 20 years away singer returns

Brook Gardner-Durbin  |   Wednesday Apr. 1st, 2015

"If I could tell my young self that I’d be back playing in Bozeman in 2015, I think she’d be pretty euphoric,” said Shana Falana. The Kingston, New York musician lived in Bozeman from 1990 to 1995 and is looking forward to visiting town again. She’s about to embark on a tour to promote her first full-length album, “Set Your Lightning Fire Free,” which will last the better part of two months, but she’s hoping to find time for a little fun and nostalgia along the way.

“I just want to walk around Main Street,” she said, adding she’d also like to “go see the old apartments I lived in, [and] maybe step into the Hauf Brau!” While she won’t have much time in Bozeman, as she has to play Missoula the next day, she has fond memories of her time here. “I became involved in music in Bozeman,” she said, “I sang at an open mic at the Hauf Brau and was quickly caught up in playing in bands there.”

Shana moved to Bozeman from LA with a friend to attend Montana State University, but soon decided music was her passion. She dropped out and started working at the Bistro. ““A River Runs Through It” was being filmed when I was there,” she said, and remembers an experience most waiters would kill for: “we brought Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt to a party with us.”

Since moving away from Bozeman, Shana has devoted years to studying Bulgarian folk music and chanting and playing in several bands at a time while painting houses to pay the bills.

“Set Your Lightning Fire Free,” despite being Shana’s first solo, full-length album, is hardly her first foray into the music world. It is, however, a significant departure for her. On previous projects, Shana would use her multiple bands to keep different aspects of her music separate. “I would have two or three bands at a time,” she explained, “a sludge rock band, a Bulgarian women’s choir … this is the first record where I’ve combined all of that, sometimes into the course of one song.” The result is as interesting as it is hard to pin down (one reviewer described the album as “clutched at the hem of various genres and wavelengths”).

“Set Your Lightning Fire Free” is scheduled to be released on April 7. Shana will be performing at Wild Joe’s Coffee Spot on Tuesday, April 21, 7 - 9 p.m. She can be found at shanafalana.com and on Facebook.    

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