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Haunting, listless country-folk. Just please don't tell her we called it that.

Monday Apr 17, 2006.     By Michael Foreman

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In 2004, a broke Shelley Short strolled into Wishbone hoping to score big in a Hank Williams songwriting contest. Instead the Portland transplant stumbled into a herd of lanky ramblin' man look-alikes.

"The winner got a hundred bucks," she recalls. "So I said, 'Oh I can do that,' and then I got there and it was a bunch of dudes dressed up like Hank Williams. I thought it was an actual songwriting contest. It cost like 25 bucks or something, and I got really upset and asked for my money back. It was just the wrong scene."

Those moanin' clones could be a metaphor for Short's recent reviews, since tag-happy, alt-this, post-that critics can't decide just where to fit her in. Her melancholy tunes get filed under everything from classic country and Americana to the catch-all "folk." True, the self-taught songstress admits she learned to play from old Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan records, but try to pigeon-hole her and she tends to bristle a bit.

"I don't like that," she says. "People are always asking me, 'What kind of music do you play?' I don't know…folk, country-folk. I mean there's nothing wrong with that, but all of the sudden that gets in your head. You know, 'Oh…country-folk.'"

Short's sophomore release, Captain Wild Horse (Rides the Heart of Tomorrow), does drift through some of that familiar territory, while dropping echoes of bluegrass, swaying shanties and Irish ballads along the way. Likewise, a weary edge blunts her high, childlike timbre (think a less grating Joanna Newsom dropped an octave). At times she sounds heartsick enough to back any Stanley Brothers dirge. "Those old folk songs, the really, really old ones, no one knows who wrote them," she says. "Some of them are just so morbid and creepy."

Luckily some lush wordplay keeps things from getting too grim. Songs like "Roaring Roars" brim with striking scenes where "murmurs flood like thick wet mud" and "moss grows up and spreads around/like icing green and icing brown." Though textured and lucid, her near-narratives never quite tell the whole story, shambling instead around that sleepy space between dreams and waking.

"I do dream vividly," she muses. "I think that you have to be open to that other world as a real world."

Understandably, Captain Wild Horse ponders themes of isolation and transition stemming from her Midwest move. But not long after her arrival, she found a few kindred spirits in drummer Jamie Carter, bassist Andy Rader (Can Ky Ree) and violinist Tiffany Kowalski (Bright Eyes). The trio's stark atmospherics give Short's airy melodies plenty of room to breathe, with occasional swells of strings suggesting storm clouds looming on the skyline.

"That started with recording," Short says of the arrangements. "We'd get into the studio and say, 'Let's try something.' All of the songs were recorded with guitar and vocals first, and that's what I thought it was going to be when I started. I hadn't met these people yet, so I didn't know."

Short seems comfortable with the idea of uncertain horizons, Hank wannabes aside. With new material in the works, including a handful of Ween covers already in the can (yes, that Ween), it probably won't get any easier to pin her down.

"I have songs I've been working on, but I don't necessarily want them to sound like this last record. I really like that sound, but it's not like I'm stuck to it. So I'm wondering what it's going to be. It's exciting."

And hopes, dreams or fears for the future? She smiles and gives us a cryptic "Yes, yes, yes."

Here I am—rock you like: A rocking chair?

After a gig: We go get wasted! No, we go home. We hang out with friends.

What's cool in Shelley's neck of the woods: I don't know…I like to go to the Grind. There are just so many places, Chicago's so big. And I like to hang out at people's houses.

This band blew my hair back: My friend Corey is in Desert City Soundtrack and came out with some solo stuff called Carcrashlander. It's a bit dark and beautiful, sad but with a twist of happiness. A sad, slow moving dimension where trumpets, pianos, fancy beats, fire escapes and ballads unite.

I get live at: The Hideout. I like being there when it's snowing because I feel like if I got stuck there or snowed in, it would be ok. We could all just hang out, maybe build a fire, play music and drink hot drinks. The people who work and run the place are great.

Most surreal CTA moment: Once my friend and I were waiting for the Blue Line, and we both got on but when I looked around I couldn't see her. I panicked a little until I saw her waving at me from the other car. It was nice to wave at someone in another car on the L. Then we called each other so we could talk. Also, once very early in the morning on the way back from the airport, a guy was smoking a joint on the Blue Line and offered it to me.

In the woodshed: I've been working on some Ween cover stuff with a friend because I was really into Ween for a long time. We're just doing Ween love songs, and we're gonna open up for Neil Hamburger at the Empty Bottle on June 16. I've also thought about sending it to Ween to see of they like it. I have all of their records memorized.

Up next: Shelley Short will play the Empty Bottle Saturday, April 22.