By Jay Scott Kanes

HONG KONG – Four young women from different parts of the world have teamed up to take a shot at introducing the fun and heartaches of country-and-western music to uninitiated audiences in urban Asia.

In a band called the Shotgun She-Ras, the comely Sholan Tsang, Claire Tallon, Meg Olinger and Annette Gallant take to the stages of Hong Kong and prepare to spread their musical message to more distant venues. Recently, they agreed to play two shows in Shanghai.

“When I tell people here that we’re a country band, their first reaction is to laugh,” Claire said. “They think it’s funny.”

Most music fans in Chinese cities prefer rock, Canto-pop or even Chinese opera. They only vaguely understand what country music is.

“At first, people were a little confused and didn’t know what to make of us,” Claire said. “But because country music is such a fun genre with so much story telling, anyone can enjoy it. At most of our shows, we get a really good reaction.”

Are the She-Ras musical pioneers? “I guess so,” Claire said. “We’ve never met another all-lady country band in Asia, not around these parts.”

Sholan, a Chinese-British lead singer, comes from Newcastle, England. Meg, a guitarist, hails from Iowa while Annette, the drummer, grew up in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Claire holds a British passport, but lived mostly in Hong Kong.

Soon the She-Ras will release a debut CD. They enjoy playing songs popularized by the likes of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Alison Krauss, plus their own material. “We all share a deep love for country music, especially the old-time variety,” Claire said.

All four band members participate in song-writing, creating diverse, even fascinating, material that’s always country-flavored. Their best efforts include “Mr Chan” about a talkative Hong Kong taxi driver, “Sixteen Knives” about a Welsh woman’s troubled life, “The Red Shift” about factory work and “Eddy the Fiddler” about an aged musician in Canada.

“Most of our songs are about people,” Claire said. “Country music tells stories that anyone can relate to – it’s about love, loss, getting drunk and falling over, crying into your beer, things everyone has done.”

The band began two years ago. “I’d been learning the bass, but had no one to play with,” Claire said. “I met Sholan and Meg at a Christmas party. By New Year’s Eve, I told them we’d start a band and what instruments they needed to learn. We went to karaoke to decide who’d be the singer.”

Annette joined when the original drummer, a Nova Scotian, returned to Canada.

“We started for the fun of learning to play instruments and of performing,” Claire said. “Already it’s gotten much bigger than we anticipated. We’ll just follow wherever it takes us.”

Sholan recalls her childhood exposure to music. “When I was little, my Mum listened to a lot of Dolly Parton and John Denver. My Dad liked Kenny Rogers and the Carpenters.”

For Meg’s pals in Iowa, country music formed “a staple” of life. “I didn’t like it then, but I was the odd one out,” she said. “Now my family thinks it’s great that I’m playing country music. They never anticipated that.”

The She-Ras often perform at nightclubs, and they’ve starred at Hong Kong’s Rockit Festival. But like most independent musicians, Sholan, Claire, Meg and Annette hold day-jobs too. Sholan teaches kindergarten and also studies art history and Spanish at the University of Hong Kong. Claire’s a nanny. Meg, a former camera assistant in the U.S. movie industry, teaches English at a tutorial centre. Annette’s one of her colleagues.

“At first, I thought we’d be a rock band,” Claire said. “Then Sholan played us a Dolly Parton CD, and we went country crazy. There are a lot of rock bands, so it’s good to be different, to have our own niche.”

















ARCHIVES

The Shotgun She-Ras, (left to right) Annette Gallant, Meg Olinger, Claire Tallon and Sholan Tsang, blaze trails as country-music 'pioneers' in Hong Kong.
(Photo by Darren Hayward)


Claire Tallon plays bass and sings.


Sholan Tsang delivers most of the lyrics.


Meg Olinger once disliked country music.


Drummer Annette Gallant spurs the band.