West of Roan - Queen of Eyes (2024)

We are Channing Showalter and Annie Schermer, and we are multi-media performance artists. We create performances using the storytelling methods of song and puppetry.

We draw inspiration from the old myths and legends to explore our own relationship to the wild self, and the things that come up along the way: fear, darkness, demons, love, isolation, joy and transformation. This is a seemingly endless quest for home, both in terms of place and family as well as the search for home within ourselves. We use light and shadow to set the scene and our puppets walk, swim, and fly within and between the topside world and the one below- where creatures and intricacies of the subconscious live.

We spend a lot of time in collective imagination as a duo, and our songs and stories reflect this journeying. We seek to simultaneously discover and create a world: a place of story, song, archetype and image. From this landscape we explore how our own yearnings, wounds and creations relate to and resonate with other people, and with larger social and cultural movements and patterns.

We sing (and do the same with fiddle) in close two part harmonies, exploring how singing uplifts and unites this collaboration and friendship, as well as discovering what sounds and chordal structures bring us closer to the complex emotions in the stories we tell. We play heavily with voice crossing, dissonance, and modal harmonies.



Tracklist:
1.01 - West of Roan - The Bell (3:36)
1.02 - West of Roan - Bread of Life (5:38)
1.03 - West of Roan - The Mountain (3:42)
1.04 - West of Roan - The White Crow (1:31)
1.05 - West of Roan - Queen of Eyes (4:42)
1.06 - West of Roan - Let No One Steal Your Thyme (2:22)
1.07 - West of Roan - Gentian (4:55)
1.08 - West of Roan - Bright (5:07)
1.09 - West of Roan - October Dance (0:44)
1.10 - West of Roan - All the Water (4:51)
1.11 - West of Roan - Tones (0:59)
1.12 - West of Roan - The Beran (5:32)
1.13 - West of Roan - By All the Light (3:02)