Last we heard of RF Shannon, the Texas-based deconstructionist country musician born Shane Renfro, he was grappling with solitude. Last October's Other Trails EP felt laconic and assured on first listen, but beneath the slow grace, he was searching for a resolution. In the end, he seemed to be assuring himself of a newfound peace more than convincing the listener. It was engrossing, but always a little haunting. "Had a Revelation" asked itself, "Do you change with the seasons? / Do you cling to the past?," but never got an answer. "There was a time when I knew everything / No more do I care," he sang on "Ten Spirits Strong." He was funneling his country slides through a desert mysticism—beautifully, too—but he was still purging earthly bother before leaping over.Shannon's debut album, Jaguar Palace, is out March 31 (on Cosmic Dreamer, appropriately). And the album's title-track, premiering on Noisey today, finds him in total reverie. It opens with pan pipes, pianos, and a damp guitar, all yawning into each other, before Shannon walks in in a trance, the drums trying to slow down to his pace. Again, he's uncertain: "Easy thing,Easy thing to pretend," he sings. But he finds a resolution divorced from absolute certainty. "There's a song in the reeds / Hear her sing out to me: 'Your love doesn't bring with it a new life, but it sure feels nice.'"Shannon sent Noisey a note to introduce the track:I wanted to write a song that had this constant lull, something like a meditative tone, a wave-constant to refer to--almost like the breath in a meditation practice. The tone, musically and lyrically, is referential to the notion of stalking thoughts and feelings as they arise, to stalk them as unconscious prey, tracing them back to their source and watching them disappear. The image of a jaguar kept popping into my mind… just quietly doing its thing in the night jungle, terrifying but peaceful and pure to its existence. I find it to be a penetrative force in confronting fears, taking risks, facing the unknown, this kind of stalking. It's something of a practice I've tried to maintain since. So this song came about as I was exploring these ideas and images. The end break where I sing "your love doesn't bring with it a new life, but it sure feels nice" is sort of the result of this process. This non-attached acceptance of a state of being. It's a thing I've always known is better to practice than gasping, grasping, clinging… nothing like a wild jaguar would be doing, unless he were severely wounded and stuck way up high in a tree. Though I guess that's not an unthinkable thing, there's room for that kind of experience too. In the end, I think just wanted to hear this groovy meditative song.
Listen to "Jaguar Palace" below, pre-order Jaguar Palace right here, and go see RF Shannon at SXSW if you're down in Austin. Those shows are listed below.RF Shannon at SXSW 2017:03.14.17 – 5:30 PM at Beerland for the Keeled Scales Showcase
03.14.17 – 7:30 PM at The Sidewinder Inside Stage for the Riot Act Media Showcase
03.15.17 – 11:00 PM at The Hilton Garden Inn – 18th FloorLead image by Jess Williamson via press.Follow Noisey on Twitter. 
