Shana Cleveland

Shana Cleveland is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist known both for her indie surf band La Luz and the gentler folk-oriented material she records under her given name. While vintage surf and instrumental rock styles inform Cleveland's music with La Luz, her work outside the group is decidedly different. Her acoustic guitar style recalls artists such as John Fahey and Robbie Basho, who fused "American Primitive" traditionalism with an adventurous melodic sense, and on her 2015 album Oh Man, Cover the Ground (credited to Shana Cleveland & the Sandcastles) and 2023's Manzanita, the cool but emphatic approach of her picking was matched by low-key, dynamic instrumental accompaniment.