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Tom Shaner is a critically acclaimed songwriter and performer. He refers to his music as “ghost songs, waltzes and rock and roll.” He performs both solo and with a band all continental US and Ireland. He lives in New York City.
There will be two new releases from Tom in Summer and Fall of 2010 co-produced by Charles Newman for Mother West. The new releases will feature Tom on guitars, piaino, percussion, vocals. Dan Green plays Bass on most tracks. On drums you will hear Claude Coleman,jr (of Ween), Josh Margolis. On additional guitars you will hear Bob Sharkey, Paul Wegmann…Emmy Bean and Danielle Howle will featured singing harmonies and Emmy shares vocals with Tom on one track. There are other excellnet players on the recordings and full credits will be available at a later date. The recording mostly took place at Mother West studios in NYC, but also in Vermont, Los Angeles, and the West of Ireland.
Comments about earlier releases:
"Festooned with melodies and lyrical incisiveness."
- CMJ
“Vocalist Tom Shaner sounds simultaneously stuck in the clouds and the swamp mud."
- Flagpole, Athens, GA
"Sounds somewhere between Talking Heads, Tom Waits and the Beatles."
- Mountain Express
"One of more impressive acts I've heard in years"
- Washington Post
His music has been described many different ways, but there is usually a very rooted quality to it. Ballads, rockers, different dynamics, tempos, waltzes, a touch of country, soul, some instrumentals, all songs and music rising up from the great melting pot of American music.
He has screenplays and films in development, directs videos, and writes. Tom has also co-produced performed, and written for multi-medai variety shows in NYC and Vermont. He has written songs for Brecht plays, and other theater projects for Eric Bass of Sanglass Theatre,VT. His songs have been hard in film and TV. Even “Tom’s of Maine” all natural toothpaste Ads. He spent one year at Bard College, then studied at NYU under William H. Macey, Stephen Schacter and David Mamet.
Though he has written hundreds of songs, and co-written as well, he is also an admirer of many types of music. From Mississippi John Hurt, Lightnin’ Hopkins, to Hank Williams, Geechie Wiley,Chess Blues,Woody Guthrie,Elvis Presley, Harry Belafonte, to Billie Holday,(esp Sun Sessions)to Chuck Berry to Dylan to Joni Mitchell to the Stones, Clash, The Breeders, Violent Femmes,Beastie Boys, Tom Waits, Manu Chao, Bob Marley, Gillian Welch, Neil Young,J.Cash,Radiohead,Randy Newman, Satchmo, The Kinks, Miles, Thelonious Monk, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Costello,James Brown, Sly Stone, Rickie Lee Jones, JT,Django Reinhardt,Curtis Mayfield, Hendrix,, Tribe Called Quest,Fela, Leonard Cohen, John Prine, Steve Earle, Solas, Orchestar Baobob, Paulinho da Viola, Brian Eno,Irish music,and on and on, books, fims, the world…Yeats, Rilke, Mary Oliver, Bukowski, Dickens, Rumi, Basho, Ricahrd Hugo, Rilke, Li Po, Steinbeck, J. Campbell, Picasso, Ric Campman,…History, air, sky, water, the planet, etc
He has had associations through the years with late friend Jeff Buckley, Tom Clark, Danielle Howle, Daniel Harnett. He plays with a variety of musicians and friends such as Dan Green, Pete Fand, Bob Sharkey, Paul Wegmann, Whit Smith, Josh Margolis, Claude Coleman, jr, Brendon O’Hallorhan, Sean Faye Cullen, Emmy Bean, Scott Grusin, Hank Wedel, Gavin Moore, Molly Melloan, John Turner, Eavan Silverman, Joel Hirsch, Manoela Wunder, Heather Hardy, Micahel P. Norberg,and many others.
Also good pal Finn Campman and Tom have collabortaed on many theater projects, including some with “Company of Strangers” (along with C of S co-founder Barbara Whitney) that took place in the mountains, outdoors, at night.
His musical screenplay “Dig” is currently in development.
As lead singer and songwriter for New York City based band Industrial Tepee, (which also included Paul Wegmann, Pete Fand and Bob Sharkey and Sound of Urchin's Tomato 11, and drummers Chris Harfenist, Rob Cimino, Josh Margolis, Claude Coleman,jr., Phil Cohen then later on John Turner on bass, then "Handsome" Dan Green but the first bassist in Tepee was old friend Whit Smith of Hot Club of Cowtown,) he put out three lauded releases (www.motherwest.com/tepee). The last was "What Divine Engine," on Mother West produced by Charles Newman and Ween drummer and leader of Amandla, Claude Coleman,jr. Tepee also put out a couple of videos, two directed by Chip Hourihan.
He met his lovely wife Eve in Cork, Ireland in 2007 at Charlie’s Pub while appearing with Hank Wedel. They married in NYC in 2009.
He usually can be seen at least one a month in NYC, when he is not traveling. He is currently finish up recording and mixing dozens of tunes with producer Charles Newman (Magnetic Fileds, Stephen Merrit) of Mother West. |
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