By Chris Doxtator
Photo by KT Langley Photography
Shelly Rollison’s wisdom comes through in her song writing. Her songs culminate into thoughtful insights on asking and answering life’s bigger questions—the questions that don’t really have clear answers. But by delving into them, Shelly shares processes for embracing the lack of clarity that can often feel like an answer we don’t want to hear. Her advice: “Settle in” and “Give it Time.” Both of these titles performed at her Headroom Session provide calls to action. These actions—much like her musical style—demand restraint and passivity that results from and builds strength of character.
“Settling in,” to Shelly, seems to be the act of surrendering your questions and concerns, realizing answers are in others’ experiences. Or that the reality of having your questions or fears spoken and heard already works to clarify and subdue what we were so afraid of in the first place. Shelly describes a campfire as an ideal setting for “Settling in.” I couldn’t think of a more apt symbol—participants gathering in from the darkness behind them to share in the light of each other’s company. “Settling in” sounds with the warmth and friendship of a campfire, but the style in which Shelly delivers this song is not pure levity. There is still a weight that can be heard in her determined voice that reminds us, as with any call to action, we’re responsible for taking the first step.
“Give it time,” feels a bit like a negotiation with a ghost, a person who is a fragment of who they used to be after a losing the kind of love that can distort reality for a period of time. Shelly sings, “everywhere absence veers its head,” and pairs this idea with the act playing through old memories with no breaks of silence. This absence of love, combined with relentless memories and sung in hauntingly powerful bursts, gets to the core of the bittersweet nature of connection. No matter the type, when strong connections are formed, they create the potential for painful periods of confusion when they are disrupted. Whenever this is the case, it’d be best to heed Shelly’s advice.