Shannon Vetter’s Whiskey Lullaby
The Louisville singer-songwriter talks about mental health, the non-binary life and their new album Holding Pattern
Shannon Vetter is a busy human being these days.
They recently released their second solo album, Holding Pattern, which takes topics like mental health, relationships and addiction and wraps them up in music where country, rock, folk and blues get invited to the table.
From the New Orleans swing of “Boundaries, Baby” to the roadhouse groove of “Down Tonight” to the lilting “Love You Better” to the matter-of-fact “Binge Drinker,” the closing credits at last call feel of “Musician’s Lament” and the twangy ache of “Whiskey Lullaby,” Vetter has a lot of bases covered.
We recently had the chance to chat with them about the album, their hopes for the future, their personal journeys of mental health and gender identity and their work for The Pete Foundation, a mental health organization in Louisville.
Before we get into the new album, I have to ask about your recent experience of sitting in with 13 bands, a DJ and a poet over three days at the Moonshadow Fest in Indiana. How much fun and/or tiring was that?
Moonshadow Fest was so much fun! I absolutely love my music community in Louisville and Southern Indiana. A lot of people know me as a saxophonist from my time with bands Big Atomic and Vezl – so I got to play a lot of saxophone and connect with a lot of friends and musicians I respect. It was amazing – and yes – completely exhausting.
Your new album, Holding Pattern, is your first solo album since 2016. As I understand it, at least some of the songs were written in the intervening years. What was the process as far as deciding what to record among the ideas you’d accumulated?
It’s true. It has been quite a few years since my last solo album. I had a pretty clear vision for this album. I wanted to tie together themes of love and loss – of mental health and growing up a bit.
What songs on Holding Pattern changed the most from how you first conceived them (and how so)? Which ones changed the least?
“Binge Drinker” was originally a two minute pop punk song! It was fast and hard and silly. But my collaborator and friend Matt Robinson sat down with me and we wrote this beautiful chorus and slowed it way down and experimented with it and let it take its final form. I released the ‘punk version’ online as well. “Whiskey Lullaby” has been the same since I originally wrote it 14 years ago. Crazy to think about it. But I still love that song.
Over the years, you’ve played in and with a number of other bands. When you come up with a song, what leads you to set it aside as best to come out under your name?
I’ve focused a lot on my other bands – and a lot of my songs have gone towards those projects. Holding Pattern has some of the best songs I’ve ever written, and definitely showcases my East Kentucky side, my acoustic guitar side – my songwriter side – more than any other record I’ve made. All the folk stuff – all the sweet stuff usually goes under my own name. The stuff I’d play around a campfire, or just trading songs with a friend.
In listening to Holding Pattern, I hear the elements that come under the broad label of Americana — country, rock, folk and blues. How have you filtered those elements, from listening to them as a kid to the other folks you’ve played with, into your music?
I don’t really see much of a difference between country rock and blues. I’ve been in bluegrass bands and jazz bands as well – the instrumentation might change – the temp might change – but the genre isn’t as important to me. We’re a part of the American South. We want it all.
The album title comes from the aviation term for when planes, for any number of reasons, have to remain in the air for permission to land. To go off that pattern, no holding pattern is indefinite. A plane has to eventually land or it will crash. How much does the idea of not just being in a holding pattern, but needing to progress out of it, play into the album?
Moving out of this metaphorical holding pattern is what this album is all about – and what this year for me is all about. This was the album I needed to make before I could make the better one. This is the time in my life where I can just focus on music.
Now that the album is out, acknowledging that people’s individual responses are out of the audience’s hands, what do you hope the listener gets out of Holding Pattern?
My main mission with my music has always been to connect people, to make them feel less alone. We are having a shared experience.
You’re open in talking about mental health. As much as you feel comfortable, how did you get to a place where you could deal with your own mental health, as well as progress to that desire to help others?
Therapy.
How has that mental health journey impacted what we hear on Holding Pattern?
I think “Boundaries, Baby” is the most direct nod to the kind of language used in therapy and popular psychology. “So Low” is directly about being in a relationship with someone who has bipolar disorder (that someone is me).
When it comes to writing material, whether it’s about a current or past relationship or something else personal, how do you strike that balance of being honest and real and not revealing too much? For you, what’s the key in taking something personal and making it universal?
Everything I write to play or release under my own name is extremely personal. I’ll slip into characters, or exaggerate, or tell stories from someone else’s perspective, but even that is just projection of myself and my own experiences or inner life. I don’t think people have a hard time relating to anything as long as it comes from a place of honesty and authenticity. None of us go through this world alone.
I would be remiss, in bringing up the topic of mental health, if I didn’t bring up The Pete Foundation. Please tell us more about the foundation’s mission and what you do there.
The Pete Foundation is a non-profit started by the Jones Family in 2016 after they lost Pete to suicide. The strength in that family, especially from the women, is remarkable. They have taken a tragedy and turned it into something good. The Pete Foundation’s main missions are to de-stigmatize mental health, raise funds and awareness for other mental health organizations, spread knowledge with QPR training, and foster a sense of community and safety. Our main fundraiser is a music festival called The Big Stomp – and I help out wherever I can to make that festival happen. It’s my fifth year of being involved and I love it.
You’re also out as non-binary. How did you get to that place where you were settled enough to say it’s where you fit on the gender spectrum? How has the response been?
When I was in high school and college I had never even heard the term non-binary. I think the first time I really talked about it was 2018 – I was 30 at this point! But I thought to myself, “Oh, yeah. That’s me. That’s always been me.” The response has not always been great – but mostly no one cares. And that’s a good thing!
AUDIO: Shannon Vetter “Boundaries, Baby”
Given that non-binary is an adjective, one of many that applies to you (or any other non-binary person), how, if at all, has it shown up in your work — be it lyrically or as something that influenced your state of mind at the time?
I haven’t really got to the point of making art that directly references it. But we’re getting closer! We’re getting louder and prouder over here.
Down the road, what do you hope for with your music in terms of expanding your audience/getting to play in other parts of the country?
This is a new beginning for me – It’s only been eight months since I started releasing music under my own name again. We’re at some great festivals this year – and I’ve been performing solo, duo , and with a big rowdy country/ rock band – the Sleepless Pilgrims. Book us! We have guitars- we will travel.
What is the question you’ve never been asked, but would love to hear and what would the answer be?
“How did you get so good?” Practice, baby. Lots of practice.
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