Biography
Elijah Shaw functions simultaneously as a performer and an audio technician, tracing connections across multiple strands of American music that echo those once navigated by an unrelated drummer of identical name whose professional life opened in 1911. The two share no family tie, yet both link strongly to the Midwestern metropolis whose landmark arch only partially softens its longstanding epithet “Sad Louis.” Active in minstrel shows, circuses, classic jazz groups, and a “Wild West” spectacle, the earlier Lige Shaw largely sidestepped recording facilities. By contrast, the contemporary Elijah Shaw, who first performed with St. Louis indie-rock ensembles in the late 1980s, pursued formal studies in recording and engineering in Nashville during the following decade and contributed to sessions by Jill Sobule, Bobby Bare, Jr., and Marshall Crenshaw.
Instrumental work on the creative side of the glass has been associated with the names Skuntry and Hoobellatoo. Neither functions merely as a conventional group: Hoobellatoo operates as an innovative D.I.Y. package tour billed as an “ongoing field recording project,” while Skuntry serves as an umbrella organization that promotes and distributes the music of more than a dozen artists. Shaw notes with satisfaction that the same instructor who gave him his initial guitar lessons later dismissed him from a band—an episode that proved instructive for both musician and bandleader. He later acquired banjo technique independently through a manual, thereby eliminating any possibility of subsequent dismissal by a printed instructor.
The 1989 formation of Enormous Richard was undertaken jointly with Chris King. A later ensemble, Three Fried Men, followed; the addition of fiddle to Shaw’s credits brings the total number of instruments he has been acknowledged for playing to three. He also receives mention for E-Bow on a Vince Bell album, though he regards the device more as an implement of sonic distress than a true musical instrument.
Instrumental work on the creative side of the glass has been associated with the names Skuntry and Hoobellatoo. Neither functions merely as a conventional group: Hoobellatoo operates as an innovative D.I.Y. package tour billed as an “ongoing field recording project,” while Skuntry serves as an umbrella organization that promotes and distributes the music of more than a dozen artists. Shaw notes with satisfaction that the same instructor who gave him his initial guitar lessons later dismissed him from a band—an episode that proved instructive for both musician and bandleader. He later acquired banjo technique independently through a manual, thereby eliminating any possibility of subsequent dismissal by a printed instructor.
The 1989 formation of Enormous Richard was undertaken jointly with Chris King. A later ensemble, Three Fried Men, followed; the addition of fiddle to Shaw’s credits brings the total number of instruments he has been acknowledged for playing to three. He also receives mention for E-Bow on a Vince Bell album, though he regards the device more as an implement of sonic distress than a true musical instrument.
Singles
