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Shawn Lane

Shawn Lane (March 21, 1963 - September 26, 2003) was an American musician, composer and polymath. He quickly became a noted player in underground guitar circles and joined Black Oak Arkansas when he was just fourteen years old. He is best known for his solo album Powers of Ten and his long stint with former John McLaughlin bassist Jonas Hellborg. Shawn Lane was born in Memphis, Tennessee. At the age of eight he accompanied his sisters on the piano, but did not play guitar seriously until he was ten. Lane progressed very rapidly on the guitar, and he found it to be his natural instrument. At thirteen, he began to practice heavily, developing his technical abilities. Word began to spread around Memphis about a talented young guitar player, and at fourteen he auditioned for the lead guitar spot in Black Oak Arkansas. Black Oak Arkansas had been a popular country rock band but at the time when Lane joined the band's popularity was declining. At age fifteen Lane saw Allan Holdsworth perform at a UK concert and was inspired to develop his own method of playing guitar. Shawn toured with Black Oak Arkansas for the next four years. As the original band members dropped out, Lane began recruiting players from his high school days and began to play a style closer to fusion than the country rock style for which the band was known. At eighteen Shawn Lane was married and burnt out from touring with Black Oak Arkansas so he decided to take a break and learn more about music. Over the next eight years he studied music and composing on his own and mainly worked on playing piano. Much of the material on Powers of Ten was written on his piano as Lane considered it his main writing instrument.[1] [2] He quickly developed his technique on keyboards as well, taking influence from pianists like Liszt,Tatum and Cziffra. [3] He began to create demo tapes which garnered interest from Warner Brothers Music and Lane was offered a recording contract. Except for one cover song, Lane wrote all the material and played all the instruments on his debut album. The album did well and earned several magazine awards.[4] During the production of the album Lane continued to play live shows and did session work. He also performed on the Mark Varney Project's Centrifugal Funk album along with Brett Garsed and Frank Gambale.

Shawn Lane with Jonas Hellborg: Issues and Reissues

by John Kelman
June 1, 2004

While he was far from a household name when he passed away in September, 2003 at the tender age of forty, guitarist Shawn Lane was considered something of a god within fusion circles. Starting out professionally at the age of fifteen in the unlikely context of the '70s Southern Rock outfit Black Oak Arkansas, he quickly refashioned the band into more of a jazz-rock affair by the mid-'80s, more akin to Return to Forever than the Allman Brothers. When the ...

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Opinion

Remembering Shawn Lane: 1963-2003

by Souvik Dutta
December 14, 2003

Shawn Lane was a dear friend of mine and though he wasn't a household name outside the world of fusion and prog-rock, the impact he had on guitarist around the world was profound. His contribution to music can only be understood by listening to his collective works which crossed many genres. An endless learner, a passionate reader and a keen observer, he always appreciated the good in everything. He was a musician first, then ...

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Album Review

Hellborg, Lane, Umamahesh, Selvaganesh, Umashankar: Icon

Read "Icon" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 7, 2003

Last year's Personae was a fusion powerhouse, laying creative waste to all in its way. Not content to rest on his muse, über -bassist Jonas Hellborg has set out after the polyphonic and polyrhythmic music of India. Hellborg and long term collaborator Shawn Lane apply their synthetic method, meshing East and West with Indian vocalist V. Umamahesh and two percussionists, V. Selvaganesh and V. Umashankar--who play the ghatam and the kanjeera, two types of hand drums used in the Southern ...

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Album Review

Hellborg/Lane/Selvaganesh/Umashankar/Umamahesh: Icon

by Jim Santella
April 2, 2003

Music: the universal language.

As civilizations developed around the world, music evolved alongside regional and cultural differences. The most basic of elements have always been there in common, but differences exist and continue to keep cultures apart. The human voice takes on various colors, even without language. Tuning may give one program preferences over another, depending on the listener’s ear. Then, there’s the instrumentation to deal with. The kanjeera, konokol and ghatam may be unfamiliar to many of ...

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Album Review

Hellborg/Lane/Selvaganesh/Umashankar/Umamahesh: Icon

by Dan McClenaghan
March 10, 2003

Swedish-born bassist Jonas Hellborg--whose category-defying CDs have incorporated aspects of metal, jazz, fusion, Middle Eastern sounds, classical and punk--offers up Icon, music tinged with Sub-Continent sounds. He is joined by guitarist Shawn Lane, Indian percussionists V. Selvaganish and V. Umashankar, and Indian vocalist V. Umamahesh.Hellborg has played with John McLaughlin and The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Public Image Ltd., and he cites as influences Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, and--interestingly--the original '60s power rock trio Cream. Interestingly, because Hellborg's bass ...

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Album Review

Shawn Lane: The Tritone Fascination

by Scott Andrews
January 1, 2001

Memphis guitarist and composer Shawn Lane continually blurs the lines between solo composer, guitar hero, and fusion improvisationalist. Lane may be the best unknown fusion guitarist, or the most musical guitar “shredder," or simply a gifted guitarist, pianist, and composer whose anonymity masks his impressive versatility and talent.

Instrumental guitar fans know Lane's work from his 1992 solo album Powers of Ten, on which Lane wrote all the music and (on one of the two released versions) played all the ...

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Video / DVD

Jonas Hellborg/Shawn Lane/Vinayakrams DVD

Source: All About Jazz
April 3, 2004

Obituary

Shawn Lane: rock and world-fusion guitarist

Source: All About Jazz
October 8, 2003

Shawn Lane Guitarist and keyboardist 3/21/63 - 9/26/03

Guitarist Shawn Lane, who progressed from a teenaged hard-rock star to a master of world fusion music, has died after a drastic battle with lung disease. He was forty years old.

Lane began his musical interests very young, studying piano and cello from the age of four. He took up the guitar at eight, and it remained his principal instrument from then on. He quickly became a legend ...
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Music Industry

JONAS HELLBORG o SHAWN LANE o V. SELVAGANESH GOOD PEOPLE In Times of Evil

Source: All About Jazz

GOOD PEOPLE In Times of Evil finds Jonas Hellborg, Shawn Lane, and V. Selvaganesh traversing heretofore uncharted musical landscapes and, in the process, creating one of the more unique and compelling collections of recorded music in recent memory. Those familiar with Hellborg's previous work won't be surprised to hear that the album defies categorization, but even longtime fans will be surprised at the casual grace and unnerving competency with which this trio deftly pickpockets from any number of dissimilar genres, ...
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