About Me

I’m going to start off by breaking the rules.  I think I’m probably supposed to refer to myself in the third person, “Shawn this, Shawn that.”  That seems less personal to me, so I’m not going to do it.

 

Judging by the picture of me as a toddler, it would seem apparent that I was influenced by music from an early age.  I grew up listening to the Rock-N-Roll music of the 60’s-70’s.  My dad was a drummer in a band and also played acoustic guitar. 

 

When I first began my music journey, becoming a songwriter hadn’t crossed my mind.  Aside from the toy guitar of my humble toddler beginnings, my first stint playing a real guitar was relatively short lived.  My dad had an acoustic guitar and I enjoyed listening to him play.  He tried to teach me, but at the time I didn’t really have the hand strength to hold the strings down very well when trying to make chords.  That didn’t make for an enjoyable experience so I gave up that first time around. 

 

In my early teens, my dad bought me a Fender Telecaster and a Peavey tube amp.  That made all the difference in the world!  Now I was able to actually press the strings to the fretboard without much effort.  That makes for a much better learning and playing experience.  Between my dad and a few friends showing me how to play chords, riffs, songs, and how to read tablature, I was on my way in becoming a guitarist.

 

While I certainly enjoyed playing rock riffs on the electric guitar, I felt something was missing for me.  I also enjoyed singing, but the fact of the matter was that I didn’t feel that I could sing along with other bands and artists that I enjoyed listening to.  Believe me, I tried singing along.  There’s a reason I’ve never taken part in Karaoke.  Then, at some point it dawned on me!  If I write my own songs, I can just sing however I sing and I won’t have to try to sound like anyone else.  I can just be me.  So, I found myself circling back to the acoustic guitar and the songwriting days began. 

 

As far as music is concerned; I don’t care about what is currently popular, what the current trends are, because those are constantly changing and they always will be.  What I mean by this is that I have never tried to create music based on what I think people want to hear, or to copy what is popular.  I care about what is true and real for me.  That is what I want to share.  Keeping it simple is what seems to work for me and that’s what I enjoy; just strumming a guitar and singing about life.