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Jon Shain

A North Carolinian singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Jon Shain has built a deep catalog of work that combines folk, Piedmont blues, bluegrass, ragtime, and other American roots traditions with his own original sensibilities. After getting his start in Big Boy Henry's band, Shain founded the Flyin' Mice, a folk-rock combo from Chapel Hill who, along with their spinoff band, WAKE, recorded several albums and toured heavily throughout the 1990s. He made his solo debut in 1999 with Brand New Lifetime, establishing the invigorating and sometimes eclectic mix of roots styles that would characterize his output over the next two decades. Along with solo highlights like 2007's Army Jacket Winter and 2014's Reupholstered, Shain also worked as a producer and session player, adding numerous credits to his résumé. He partnered with other artists for joint releases like 2016's Crow the Dawn with Joe Newberry and a pair of albums -- Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday Soon (2018) and Never Found a Way to Tame the Blues (2021) -- with his duo partner FJ Ventre. Shain's tenth solo album, Restless Soul Syndrome, was released in 2024. Growing up in the Massachusetts mill town of Haverhill, Shain worked in his family's textile dyeing factory as a teenager. At the same time, he began nurturing a love for American roots music and writing his own songs. In 1986 he left New England to study at Duke University in North Carolina. The area's rich musical heritage allowed him to study under important figures like jazz saxophonist (and Duke professor) Paul Jeffrey and blues legend Big Boy Henry. Along with his college studies (Southern history, English, world religions), Shain began learning Piedmont blues guitar from Henry while playing in his band. He formed a folk-rock group, the Flyin' Mice, in 1989 and throughout the front half of the '90s, they toured up and down the East Coast regularly. Between 1991 and 1996, the Flyin' Mice recorded four independent albums and played with artists like David Grisman, Tony Rice Unit, Hot Tuna, and Leon Russell. A spinoff group, WAKE, released a single album in 1997, after which Shain began his solo career. His first album, 1999's Brand New Lifetime, returned him to the stripped-down blues and folk style of his early influences. Over the next several years, he toured the folk circuit as a solo act and recorded a series of independent albums for his own Flyin' Records imprint. A prolific songwriter, Shain delivered warmly recorded, smartly written songs that fused his myriad musical interests. During the 2000s, he released a total of five solo albums including 2003's No Tag, No Tail Light, 2007's Army Jacket Winter, and 2009's Times Right Now. Some of his touring highlights included opening spots for Keb' Mo', NRBQ, and John Hammond. Shain kept up this momentum in the following decade, releasing solo albums like 2013's Ordinary Cats and 2014's Reupholstered while guesting on releases by Jim Avett, Phil Gotham, and others. He had also become a well-established music instructor specializing in acoustic blues traditions. In the latter half of the 2010s, Shain shifted his focus toward collaborative work, producing albums for other artists and making a series of duo albums beginning with 2016's Crow the Dawn, a joint effort with fellow songwriter Joe Newberry. He then formed a duo with an old high school friend, singer/guitarist FJ Ventre, and the two released 2018's Tomorrow Will Be Yesterday Soon. Shain also released a solo tribute album to W.C. Handy, Gettin' Handy with the Blues, which was later issued as an instructional guitar book by publisher Mel Bay. 2021 saw the release of Never Found a Way to Tame the Blues, his second duo album with Ventre, and he also produced Donna Herula's album Bang at the Door. A year later, Mel Bay published his second guitar book, Jon Shain's Fingerstyle Guitar Method. He returned to solo work in 2024 with his tenth album, Restless Soul Syndrome.
© Timothy Monger /TiVo
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Discography

15 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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