West Coast blues. Americana. Funky, fuzzed-out soul. Shane Hall plays it all, rolling a wide range of inspiration into his own multi-layered sound.
It’s a diverse musical mix that shines a light not only on Hall’s guitar playing and larger-than-life voice, but on his sharply-written songs, too. That songwriting reaches a new high-water mark with West, River, and Queen, three interconnected EPs that serve as his first releases for LAW Records. Each record focuses on a different side of Hall’s musical personality. There’s West, a collection of bold, bluesy songs that mix fiery fretwork with amplified stomp. Then there’s River, a rootsy EP inspired by the acoustic music — from Appalachian folk songs to MTV Unplugged performances — that soundtracked Hall’s childhood days in Pennsylvania, before a 16-year stint in the U.S. military took him around the world. Wrapping up the trio of releases is Queen, whose songs fuse the groove and grit of soul music to the swagger of rock & roll, nodding to influences like Charles Bradley, James Brown, and the Alabama Shakes along the way.
“I don’t think it’s possible for me to stay in one single lane,” says Hall. “I’d have a hard time only being a blues guy, or an outlaw Americana songwriter, or a soul singer, because I’m all of those things. Billy Gibbons once said you should make music that you’d want to listen to, and I listen to so many different things. I’m a blues-soul-Americana artist, so why not put all of those sounds onto my records?”
Years relocating to San Diego (where he recorded the 14 songs that comprise West, River, and Queen in two inspired days, capturing the tracks with his well-seasoned road band in a series of live takes), Hall grew up in the Rust Belt. His mother and stepfather who sang folk songs around the house, and Hall quickly fell in love with acoustic music. Before long, his tastes deepened and diversified, encompassing not only his parents’ Peter Paul & Mary records, but also the gospel music that filled his church every Sunday morning, the blues pioneers whose music inspired personal heroes like Jimi Hendrix, and the grunge songs that dominated the radio stations in his hometown of Harrisburg, PA. Once graduation came, Hall left Harrisburg for good, whisked halfway across the world as a member of the U.S. Marines.
