Shawn Lane

Diplowmatt · #1 10-19-2011, 11:38 PM

I just discovered the other day, that one of the best guitarists I've ever heard is not only from my home town, but also buried a few blocks away from my house.

MyShawnLaneVideos's Channel - YouTube

If you've never heard of him, oh dear lord. The more I dug, the more floored I got. He was sincerely, geniunely, the real deal.

lowfreq33 · #2 10-19-2011, 11:42 PM

Shawn was great. He came to one of my shows once, and a friend of mine was his tech for several years. Genuinely a great guy and a gentle soul. Brilliant player.

Diplowmatt · #3 10-19-2011, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

Shawn was great. He came to one of my shows once, and a friend of mine was his tech for several years. Genuinely a great guy and a gentle soul. Brilliant player.

That's awesome.

I am however, now, kicking my own ass.

mcglyph · #4 10-19-2011, 11:59 PM

He was from Memphis right? I remember hearing about him when I was young.

Adam Wright · #5 10-20-2011, 02:19 AM

ah yes...Shawn Lane, one of the best musicians of our time IMO. This is one of my favorite clips with him, Jonas Hellborg and Jeff Sipe.....Shawn Lane - Guitar Solo & Abstract Logic (Atlanta D&P - 19th Aug 1996) - YouTube

lowfreq33 · #6 10-20-2011, 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diplowmatt

That's awesome.

I am however, now, kicking my own ass.

Don't do that, hardly anybody knows who he is. He had no mainstream success to speak of, mainly because of his agoraphobia and social anxiety issues. He also had a lot of health problems toward the end of his life.

jerry · #7 10-20-2011, 11:26 AM

I'm a huge fan of his work with Jonas Hellborg, what a mind-meld they had.

JimK · #8 10-20-2011, 12:58 PM

...and Shawn was a member of Black Oak Arkansas when he was a mere 16.

This was a revamped, re-tooled '80s version (only original member was Jim Mangrum).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXADYMCreLg

A friend of mine played keys/violin in that BOA incarnation...when he came back to town, he always judged every guitarist through the prism of Shawn Lane.
"So & so is a great guitarist"
"...is he as good as Shawn"?

I wish I had a dime for everytime I heard that.

bottomzone · #9 10-20-2011, 06:41 PM

Oh yeah-Shawn was amazing and extremely underrated.

A Groove is a Terrible Thing to Waste!

The Owl · #10 10-20-2011, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerry

I'm a huge fan of his work with Jonas Hellborg, what a mind-meld they had.

WORD!!!!!!!

Have you ever seen the DVD "Paris" with Shawn, Jonas and 2 Indian percussionists, THAT is mindblowing!

Roy Vogt · #11 10-20-2011, 08:08 PM

Shawn was amazing! I had talked with him about recording some guitar on my projects but we never connected to do so. He was a truly great guitarist.
I remember sending the first Stan Lassiter Pink,Blue and Red project that I produced to Mark Varney at (then) Legato Records and having him contact us with the idea of recording with Shawn as the lead guitarist and Stan playing rhythm. Needless to say, that didn't go over well and the idea was scrapped. Mark later used that concept on Truth in Shredding and some other All Star projects with Shawn. Makes you wonder, if only, then what......

tedesco23 · #12 10-20-2011, 09:23 PM

Huge, huge fan.

As others have pointed out, his work with Hellborg is just off the charts. "Temporal Analogues of Paradise" is a desert-island disc.

Diplowmatt · #13 10-20-2011, 09:40 PM

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah I saw some youtube footage of him and Hellborg. Pretty awesome.

I also saw the vid of him playing piano and nearly peed myself.

I should be more emmersed in my own city's music scene. I saw Polyneon was from here too. Man.

What I was most impressed with Shawn is not the speed he played with but the soul he played with. He FELT what he was playing and I think that's the most impressive, not only being (recorded) as one of the fastest guitar players (and cleanest) on the planet at one time.

chrisrusty99 · #14 11-09-2011, 05:51 PM

I found out about him a little more than a year ago and since then I've become a complete fanatic - I keep finding more and more material which I love and which blows my mind more than anything else... he's easily become my favorite musician ever.

naetog · #15 11-11-2011, 01:43 AM

I got to see Shawn, Jonas & Selvaganesh in 2001. Incredible. One of the best shows I've ever seen, and hands down the best guitarist I've ever seen live. And the bass was amazing. As was the percussion.

Magikern · #16 01-28-2012, 11:07 AM

I saw Shawn 3 times live and he was outstanding for sure. Some people would say that his playing was tasteless and that he played the same licks all the time but that is far from the truth.

He actually transcribed Scriabins hardest etudes and the goldberg variations for guitar and bass. He had everything in his mind though and never wrote anything down. If he lived for another year he would have recorded it.