Shane Queener is a musician with a unique journey that has deeply influenced his western folk music. From his musical beginnings in a Pentecostal family to a transformative encounter with cowboy music, Shane has navigated the music world with authenticity and dedication. LP McKay with KSJD News sat down with him and provides this report ahead of his next show at the ZU Gallery.
Shane Queener
I grew up in kind of a musical family. My dad was a Pentecostal preacher. My mom played the piano and my sister played the piano. And it was all kind of church related stuff. And I started playing the bass guitar when I was 10 years old. And most of that was in church. And most of my musical influences growing up until kind of into of my 20s was all influenced by the Pentecostal realm of religion and started breaking away from that a little bit. I got my music degree again, my major was guitar. So I built on what I knew and just kind of ran with it.
LP McKay
Shane spent the next phase of his life in Music City
Shane Queener
The entire time, we live just on the outskirts of Nashville. So music was everywhere. Music opportunities were everywhere. But there was always that kind of social pressure to go to work and bring home a consistent paycheck.
LP McKay
Do the grown up thing?
Shane Queener
Do the grown up thing... Yeah,
LP McKay
Shane developed his current sound around the age of 35 after a fortuitous interaction with another friend in the music business.
Shane Queener
Around that time, I had a friend that was the monitor sound engineer for John Prine. And he went on a West Coast tour with John and came back and tossed me a CD and said, Man, you got to hear this. And it was Tom Russell's cowboy songs and songs of the West. And I was kind of like, oh, where has this been my entire life? Who is this guy? So I kind of got off course of the mainstream stuff and kind of headed down that road of cowboy music and cowboy folk music. It led me to people like Mike Beck and Ian Tyson ended up this is a complete another story on its own, but ended up playing bass on the road with Wiley in the wild west for two years. And that was all tours out west. And we did went overseas a bit, but So yeah, that my friend Dan tossing me that Tom Russell's CD was pretty transformative.
LP McKay
He points to the music community here in the four corners as being pillars of support, especially in contrast with his life in Nashville.
Shane Queener
So I've been here since December 20. So I've only been here just just about eight months. And I kind of immediately started trying to plug in to the music scene. And it's so fantastic here like coming...coming from and spending so much time in the Nashville area. It's like, it's kind of like a Piranha pit, and you got to have sharp elbows. And there's some great people there. I have great connections there. I have great musician friends there. But it's a great place to go. If you want to be discouraged on a daily basis.
LP McKay
Yeah, get a lot of no's.
Shane Queener
Yeah, So the music community here has just been fantastic. And everybody's open-armed and helpful. From Yves at the Mancos brewery. Aaron at the Dolores River Brewery, and you know, their open mics and jam sessions. And now Jodi is doing an open mic at the ZU. Yeah, the the music community here is pretty fantastic. And I want to be aware of that. And I want to be a part of that and not try to be something out outside of that, if that makes sense.
LP McKay
When pointing to the style of music he plays, Shane is specific about the way that he connects to the stories being told.
Shane Queener
You say western music and cowboy music and a lot of people's mind can go to like, you know, spaghetti westerns and Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. And it's kind of a it's, it's kind of a pull away from that. And it's more of I call it Western folk music. It definitely has an element of storytelling. There seems to be kind of an maybe even an element of vulnerability to it. But yeah, definitely rooted in the West Western themes. But it's not definitely not the like cliche
LP McKay
No cowpokes.
Shane Queener
No Cowpokes, yeah.
LP McKay
Shane speaks next to how the setting of his upcoming show at the ZU Gallery in Cortez plays into his strengths as a performer
Shane Queener
So, intimate settings are where I'm comfortable. I do quite a bit of talking to set up the songs I don't you know, I don't just go on my next song is blah, blah, blah. So I set the songs up with stories and...and I like to think that my set kind of tells my story... I... on the journey that I've been on, I've, I've kind of learned that vulnerability and transparency is where you really connect with people. And I think music is is huge for doing just that. So if I can, if I can take part of my story and and put it in a song where it's concise and makes people think, then then that's where I'm at. So the intimate settings are where I'm comfortable. And again, for me, it's about it's about connecting with people. Music for me has never been about trying to make a living doing it or trying to be the next best thing or the next big thing. I've just I tried to be true to myself and true to my story. And it seems to work so it it lands where it's supposed to. But yeah, these things these things don't come overnight. There's a... there's years, years of work and practice that goes into it. So when you go to a place like the listening room, and people are there to be interested in what you have to say, it's pretty special. versus you know, being background noise in a honkey tonk or A bar.
Shane will be playing the ZU Gallery in Cortez on Thursday, August 31st from 6-8pm.
