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Shawn Lane
was a phenomenally talented guitar player who never quite broke out
beyond guitar enthusiasts and critics, but will remain influential to
players for many years to come. Originally hailed as a child prodigy,
Lane joined Black Oak Arkansas as a teenager, and could have been part
of the guitar shredder movement of the late '80s and '90s, but his restless
musical inclinations led him down a different path.Lane began his musical
education on piano and cello at age four, but had switched to guitar
by age eight.
At ten, he was holding band rehearsals at the house he shared with his
grandmother, and since the other bandmembers left their instruments
at his house, Lane was free to try them out, and added bass and drums
to his keyboard and guitar abilities. By 15, Lane was becoming known
in Memphis circles as a guitarist, which led to an audition with Black
Oak Arkansas in 1978, who he toured with for the next four years. Black
Oak Arkansas was still popular enough to play at Bill Clinton's inaugural
as Governor of Arkansas, but the band's heyday was well behind them.
After disbanding briefly, BOA was re-formed with a couple of Shawn's
high school friends joining the band, and bringing a heavy fusion edge
to this southern boogie band. Then, burnt out from touring, Lane basically
dropped out of sight in 1982 for a couple years, practiced piano, studied
music theory and composition, and did a lot of reading and watching
movies (he claims he barely played guitar at all during this period).The
mid-'80s saw Shawn returning to guitar: first playing in some bands
around the south, then appearing on an album produced by Mike Varney
on the Shrapnel label, with a tune called "Stratosphere II" on the U.S.
Metal compilation (his first available recording).
Shortly afterwards, he formed a band called the Willys, who were the
house band at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Many touring musicians caught
Lane's playing while staying there, and word of mouth led to session
work, and eventually to his playing on the Highwayman 2 album with Johnny
Cash and Willie Nelson. That high profile work ,and a demo cassette
passed to Jim Ed Norman at Warner Brothers led to Lane being signed
to Warner Brothers in 1990. Lane spent the next two years at home, creating
the Powers of Ten album, on which he played every instrument. Following
its release in 1992, Guitar Player Magazine named him "Best New Talent"
and he placed second in Keyboard Magazine's "Best Keyboard Player" category.
A touring band was assembled to promote the album, and a live recording
was made, though it wasn't released until 2001(Powers of Ten Live!).
His next project was DDT, a band that also featured Cody and Luther
Dickenson, later of the North Mississippi Allstars.
The DDT material was supposed to be for Lane's second album for Warner
Bros., but the recording never materialized. Also at this time, Lane
did production work for other artists, did a couple instructional videos,
and developed curricula and taught at several European Conservatories.1994
would be an important year for Lane, as it marked his first collaboration
with Swedish bassist Jonas Hellborg, a relationship that would continue
for nearly a decade and produce many releases (mostly on the Bardo label).
Lane and Hellborg were perfect collaborators, sharing many of the same
musical influences and many other interests as well, and it was playing
with Hellborg that Lane really discovered his voice on guitar. They
toured with drummer Jeff Sipe over the next several years, developing
such a rapport that they were able to play completely improvised sets
every night (documented on albums like Temporal Analogues of Paradise
and Time Is the Enemy).
Concurrently, in 1995, Hellborg and Lane played with Chinese pop singer
Wei-Wei, and the Hellborg/Lane/Sipe trio appeared as an opening act
at all of Mainland China's largest musical venues. Lane and Hellborg
parted ways with Sipe in 1997, allowing Lane to work on the tracks that
would become Tri-Tone Fascination, his second solo album in 1999. Also
at this time, he and Hellborg began incorporating more Near Eastern
and Eastern influences into their playing and improvising (Zenhouse,
). In 1999, Lane and Hellborg began working with V. Selvaganesh, son
of percussionist Vikku Vinayakram of Shakti fame, and began pushing
the music into more of a South Indian fusion, as evidenced by Good People
in Times of Evil. Lane started having health problems in 2001, temporarily
breaking off his work with Hellborg.
After recovering, Lane started playing with a Memphis bar band called
the Time Bandits, but was back with Hellborg and Sipe for a brief tour
in 2002. There was also more work with the Vinayakrams, resulting in
Icon, a dazzling work of East-West fusion that, unfortunately proved
to be among Lane's final recorded works. There was a brief tour of India
in February of 2003, but Lane's health problems returned, and on Sept.
26, 2003, Shawn Lane passed away following lung surgery.
This
bio courtesy www.allmusic.com
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