McNally drinks in the blues on 'Coldwater'

Shannon McNally's upcoming album, "Coldwater," is a mix of influences from her current home in northern Mississippi and her Long Island rock roots.

"I grew up listening to WNEW and going to all the rock shows at Jones Beach and Nassau Coliseum - Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Pink Floyd, Santana, Clapton, the Allman Brothers," says the Freeport native. "I didn't think of it as music made by men. I just liked it. It's always been the case that I wanted to make that kind of music. I think that now, I can verbalize it. I didn't think about it before."

McNally says now that she's been playing lead guitar more, she realized how female musicians don't usually fit in the music industry's view of female artists. "I'm not like most female singers," she says. "I don't have backup dancers. I don't have some hoochie mama outfits on. So many female artists are essentially selling sex, some more obviously than others. . . . That's just not my first interest."

Instead, McNally is interested in reflecting her new life on the blues-filled "Coldwater," produced by the late folk hero Jim Dickinson. She and her husband moved to Mississippi after they evacuated New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and they have settled there with their new daughter. She is releasing the album herself, after her stint with Capitol Records didn't work out. And she is writing and singing about the things that matter most. "I survived with my artistic sensibility intact," she says. "It's not easy, but it wasn't easy before."

Shannon McNally plays Southpaw, 125 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn, 718-230-0236, at 8 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $10 through TicketWeb, 866-468- 7619, ticketweb .com. "Coldwater" will be available April 27 through her Web site shannonmcnally.com.

Contact The Long Island Sound at glenn.gamboa@newsday.com or follow @ndmusic on Twitter.