GILROY — Blues musician Shane Dwight remembers when the bars
and clubs he played weren’t packed houses
– before the days when they were asked to play in the region’s
giant blues festivals in front of crowds of nearly 10,000
screaming, dancing fans. After all, it was just two years ago.
GILROY — Blues musician Shane Dwight remembers when the bars and clubs he played weren’t packed houses – before the days when they were asked to play in the region’s giant blues festivals in front of crowds of nearly 10,000 screaming, dancing fans. After all, it was just two years ago.
“There were times when we were playing in front of eight people,” Dwight said. “There wasn’t a thousand people, a hundred people – there were eight and you had to play for them for four hours.”
Although the size of the crowds have changed over time, Dwight’s energy and stage presence never have, which is possibly the reason he’ll never see that small of a crowd again.
“I think everyone appreciates it,” he said. “We’re addicts now. The people really make it fun, dancing and going home all sweaty.”
The Shane Dwight Blues Band in just a few years has gone from playing in front of small audiences in the Bay Area to packing houses up and down the West Coast and across the region, including winning the first-ever battle of the bands contest in the Monterey Blues Festival and playing in front of 8,000 fans on the streets of Reno during the Reno Blues Festival last June.
But it all began in small blues clubs like Lou’s Pier 47 in San Francisco, where Shane Dwight’s Blues Band will take the stage tonight. And Dwight hasn’t forgotten the clubs that gave his band a chance before his music was played on blues radio stations all over California and he was making appearances on shows like Dan Aykroyd’s House of Blues Radio Hour and performing as house band on Microsoft Insider Live on Tech TV.
“It really helped out everything,” the 28-year-old said of playing in small clubs, building a following night after night. “We spread our wings really quick.”
Dwight, who was born in South San Jose and grew up in Morgan Hill before moving to Gilroy three years ago, said he’s been making music since he was 6 years old, starting on drums. Unfortunately, those drums ended up being him beating up Barbie doll boxes until his parents found him and decided he needed a drumset, which is promptly became bored with.
However, his love affair with music had just begun.
“It’s kind of funny,” Dwight said. “One of those ‘mother knows best’ stories.”
Once Dwight had given up the drums, he dragged his mom back to the music store to get a new instrument – a saxophone.
“Mom said, ‘Why are you getting a saxophone, you’ll stop playing in three months.’ ” Dwight remembered. “Sure enough, after three months I got tired of it, and we went back and I got a guitar.”
The guitar stuck with Dwight, who played throughout junior high and high school, taking lessons for Gilroy’s John Garcia.
“He really knows music,” said Dwight, who learned several different styles of music while under Garcia. Dwight became enthralled with the sound of blues music because he heard his dad listening to it all the time.
“When I was growing up, it was blues everywhere,” he remembers.
After graduating from Live Oak High School, Dwight decided to continue learning about music at Gavilan Community College, but he said that eventually led to him putting the guitar down for a while.
“Next thing I know I have a full-load of classes, and I needed a job,” he said. “All of a sudden the guitar was just sitting there collecting dust.”
Dwight took on jobs as a collision estimator, a roofer and a waiter before starting at UPS, where he worked for for three years before an injury turned his life back to music.
“I hurt my back really bad,” said Dwight, who hurt himself lifting boxes.
Finding that he couldn’t work, Dwight immersed himelf back into his guitar and – for the first time – singing.
“I started doing open mics,” he said. “I was trying to get the courage to sing.”
During that time Dwight also played back-up guitar for a few bands over the course of a year and a half. Finally, he decided that he was ready to start his own band, and now he hasn’t worked in three years – he spends all his time working for the band.
“During the week I’m on the phone setting up gigs, talking to people,” he said. “It’s a full-time job.”
As Dwight’s vision of a high-energy blues band continues to mold, he has employed many different Bay Area blues artists to work with him. He currently is featuring Jerome Kimsey, a drummer who has played with Johnney Winters and T-bone Walker; Chuck Fike, a bassist who has played in countless blues bands; Greg “Tumbleweed” Mooney, who harmonica has put him onstage with thte likes of Tom Fogarty of Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Lee Hooker; and Robby Z., an accomplished rhythm guitarist.
“They’re all professionals,” Dwight said of his bandmates. “They’ve been playing forever.”
Dwight said he is lucky to have musicians around him that have allowed him to bring his ideas to the band.
“When you’re young everyone wants their own style, and you don’t get anywhere,” he said. “They trust me. I bring in what I want and they fill in the holes.
“I got really lucky with th ese guys. These guys have allowed to give me the steering wheel but give me directions when I need them.
Dwight has recorded two CDs, one called “Boogie King,” which is a 14-track album recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley that is made of covers of blues legends and Dwight’s own song, the title track, and the other is a self-titled disc of five Dwight originals recorded live.
But Dwight has found that the music industry isn’t just as easy as coming up with a hot guitar lick.
“We’ve run the gamet,” he said. “We had a record deal and then gave the money back.”
Dwight has learned that energy, charisma and great music isn’t all you need to make it in the music business. He has had to face the fact that blues music doesn’t sell millions of records.
“There’s a lot of options,” Dwight said. “You can relly make a lot of money as an independent artist these days.”
While Dwight and his band spent much of last year and part of this year spreading the word about their music, they hope to bring it back to Gilroy and the Bay Area as the year goes on. Part of that came earlier this month, went Dwight’s band played to a packed house at the Strand Theater.
“It was great. I saw people that I hadn’t seen since high school,” Dwight said. “I hadn’t played here in a long time.
“We’re really trying to do that more this year. We spent the last year to spread our music out up and down the coast, this year we’re gonna try and come back home.”
Dwight also is working on another album, one that he says will cross lines of genre, reaching from the blues into country music and even rock.
“We’re going to push the parameters on the next record, for sure,” he said.
However, Dwight doesn’t plan to stray too far from the blues.
“I’m trying to keep the tradition and try and fit in the mainstream,” “It’s a language that keeps needing to be heard. It’s good music whatever you call it.”
Shane Dwight’s CDs are available at Tower Record locations across the Bay Area and at www.shanedwight.com.
