Our Music
Billy & Bella: Harmony from the High Desert
Billy & Bella are more than just a musical duo; they are a partnership forged in harmony and refined by the road. Comprised of Shawn Lightfoot and Anna Chlewicki, the Albuquerque-based couple has been writing and performing together since 2015. Their sound—a cinematic blend of Southwestern-inspired indie-folk and Americana—feels like a drive across the open desert: vast, beautiful, and occasionally haunting.
Their story began in the humid music scene of Jacksonville, Florida, where they cut their teeth performing in the historic Five Points and downtown neighborhoods. After years of establishing themselves in the Southeast, the 2020 pandemic served as a turning point. In 2021, seeking a landscape that matched the expansive nature of their music, they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to begin a new chapter in the High Desert.
Musically, Billy & Bella occupy a unique space where 1950s classic pop meets 90s alternative rock. Their dual-guitar arrangements—balancing acoustic warmth with electric grit—serve as the backdrop for their signature male-female vocal harmonies. While they often perform as an intimate duo, they frequently expand into a powerful four-piece band for a high-energy, foot-stomping live experience.
Lyrically, the duo doesn’t shy away from the shadows. Their songs explore the "darker sides of the human condition," weaving together themes of hope and despair. They often use the idealized American West as a metaphor for renewal, hiding sharp layers of social and political commentary beneath the surface of what, at first listen, appear to be traditional love songs.
With three major releases under their belt—including their self-titled EP, the full-length Onward Shangri-La, and their most recent Albuquerque-produced album Unindicted Coconspirators—Billy & Bella have gained airplay across the globe, from KMRD in Madrid, NM, to KTUH in Honolulu. Whether they are playing a quiet, candlelit room or a raucous brewery, Bill & Bella invite their audience to look closer, listen harder, and find what is truly "good in life."