Award-Winning “Shanna in a Dress” Brings Her Quirky Folk to Society Hall!
3/8/26, 2:30 AM
Shanna in a Dress is your quirky best friend who refuses to wear pants. She says what everyone has felt but no one else will say and you'll get an uncensored journey of clever humor and heartbreak, extreme candor, and a hefty side of entertainment at her shows. This witty wordsmith is known for taking you on an emotional roller coaster, sometimes within the same song. Think John Prine mixed with Ingrid Michaelson with a twist of Phoebe Buffay from Friends all wrapped up in a sweet voice accented by guitar, piano, and ukulele. She's as real as it gets, as anyone who follows her on FB or Instagram knows.
Shanna started her career at the University of Virginia, fell in love with Boulder, Colorado, and now keeps her fun music flowing out of Nashville unless she's touring the US or Europe. You can't get the same Shanna in a Dress show twice with her spontaneous banter and playful stage presence. She manages to teeter the line masterfully of taking on complex subject matters with smart, bold, and yet accessible lyrics. Her charisma and boldly honest songs are full of interesting language and wordplay and delight audiences of all ages.
Most recently, Shanna in a Dress was pronounced the winner of the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriting Contest and she returned to perform on the main stage with a full band at the 2023 Rocky Mountain Folks Fest. In 2020 alone, Shanna was a winner in the Kerrville New Folk competition, winner of the Great River Folk Fest Song Competition, a finalist at Songwriter Serenade, and a Grassy Hill Emerging Artist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.
During the summer of 2021, Shanna bicycled from Seattle to Boston while music-touring on her epic "Tour de Dress," playing over 60 shows from coast to coast and partnering up with the global non-profit Pangaea World Foundation.
In May 2022, her debut record Robot was released after a wildly successful crowdfunded campaign years earlier. She has most recently been seen gracing the stages of Kerrville Folk Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Black Bear Americana Fest, Great River Folk Fest, and the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. Tom Prasada-Rao calls her "Kerrville's fastest rising star" and she's certainly delightfully unique and is one to watch in the future.
Shanna’s second album, Sweet Spot will be released on February 27.
Society Hall Welcomes Back the Arellano Brothers!
3/15/26, 1:30 AM
Chris and his brother Rodney are natives of Costilla, New Mexico, perched right on the Colorado border at the southern end of the San Luis Valley. They both grew up playing in their father’s band, but their musical journey since then has since taken them from the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles, to major label record deals in Nashville, through performances in New York City to Chris running his own music teaching academy in Oregon.
The Arellano Brothers have a remarkable range of musical influences and expressions, from the Norteno music they grew up playing in their father’s band, to the high desert folk/Americana music they learned to love in Red River, New Mexico, while learning to write songs with Chris's friend and mentor Eddy Lee Bullington, well known to area audiences as a member (with Michael Hearne) of the popular South by Southwest band, and also as a member (with Don Richmond) of the regional favorite Hired Hands. Chris and Rodney are able to blend these different musical streams seamlessly, and delightfully, in their music that they call “Nuevo Americana” (also the title of Chris's 2nd CD), creating a true expression of the beauty, richness and diversity of the musical heritage of this area.
If you add in Chris's superb command of multiple stringed instruments and voice, honed by years of experience as a recording artist, studio musician and producer in Nashville, mixed with Rodney's rock-solid bass work and note-perfect sibling vocal harmony and you have the ingredients of a remarkable performance and an amazing musical evening.
In 2025, Chris was the recipient of a grant from Howlin' Dog Music Group, a non-profit organization based in Alamosa, to help him record a new album, which he and Rodney are working on in Nashville with their old friend and Nashville legend Verlon Thompson. Chris's second CD, released on Alamosa's own Howlin' Dog Records, features several original songs, two of his father's Norteno-styled tunes, as well as songs from his mentors Eddy Lee and Verlon Thompson. The CD has received rave reviews from fans and DJ's alike, and is in heavy rotation on regional radio. Two cuts from Arellano’s previously released self-titled album held #1 positions on New Mexico Radio Charts and Cuentas Que Te Vas and Puno de Tierra were respectively the #6 and #3 most requested songs of the year in 2015. This CD project also received a Los 15 Grandes De Nuevo Mexico Music Award from the New Mexico Latin Music Academy. In 2016 the album received nine separate nominations for New Mexico Hispano Music Association Awards, including Songwriter of the Year, Artist of the Year, and the Rising Star Award.
More Upcoming Shows & Events
April 15 – Lisa Morales
Saturday March 21 – Democratic Party meet the candidates presentation – 2:00 – 6:00 PM
Saturday March 28 – Ruben Dominguez and Rose Vialpando
April 25 – Jim Jones and Randy Palmer
May 23 – Redd and the Paper Flowers
May 28 – Stillhouse Junkies