A SHERO’s Journey: Shana Cleveland

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader Shana Cleveland cut her teeth in Chicago before heading to the Pacific Northwest which is where she would form the psychedelic surf-rock band La Luz in Seattle a decade ago as their lead guitarist and songwriter. Meanwhile Shana also was fronting a folkier band called The Sandcastles as a vehicle for her other passion - acoustic fingerpicking - and couple years after releasing La Luz’s 2013 full length debut, It’s Alive, Shana put out her solo debut as Shana Cleveland and The Sandcastles, Oh Man, Cover the Ground, followed by 2019’s Night of the Worm Moon, under her own name. La Luz has since put out three more albums - most recently their critically hailed 2021 self titled album, but in January 2022 Shana was diagnosed with breast cancer, and their tour was cut short. Now just over a year later, Shana Cleveland has returned with a gorgeous new solo album called Manzanita, inspired by the nature of her new home surroundings in California, and her first pregnancy and birth of her son.