ROCK SPRINGS — The Sweetwater Events Complex is excited to welcome country music artist Elvie Shane to Wyoming’s Big Show concert stage on Tuesday, August 1 at 8:30 p.m.
Elvie Shane’s dad had a saying. One of those things that sticks with a person all through life – and especially in tough times. “Always forward, never straight,” he’d proclaim, knowing full well that a detour sometimes gets us where we’re headed. Even as a kid, Shane knew it was good advice. He just had no idea how good.
Nowadays, he’s the man behind the most heartwarming country hit in recent memory – the lump-in-your-throat anthem to step-fatherhood, “My Boy” – and Shane knows what his dad meant. The road ahead is rarely a straight shot, and with Backslider, his full-length album debut on Wheelhouse Records, he gives that truth a soundtrack.
“It’s my biography pretty much,” Shane says, waving a flag for the perfect imperfection of our world. “I feel like Backslider is about being human, and I just want to say ‘Hey man, I screw up on a daily basis, and I can’t help it – but I’m gonna get up tomorrow and try to be better than I was. Does anybody want to do that with me?’”
A native of small-town Kentucky, that drive to make the world a little better comes naturally to Shane – and so does his high-energy sound. Raised in the Baptist church, some of his earliest (and fondest) memories come from singing hymns each week beside his Gospel-loving mother. She was the rock of the family, providing Shane with the drive and compassionate compass he now follows in his own music. But when they got home, it was his dad’s boombox that stole Shane’s attention, with the sound of classic rock and country helping pass the time.
Early touchstones like Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle and John Fogerty joined Shane’s Gospel roots to form the bedrock of his taste – along with R&B classics like The Temptations and modern superstars like Eminem. And after a fateful Baptist revival came through town, he joined a band as a front man full of wild-eyed charisma. Soon they were rocking rowdy beer joints that suited his roughneck style, and at the same time, Shane began writing songs that were almost visual in their depth. But like so many others, he flew mostly under the radar … until “My Boy” first emerged.
“I think it set the bar for a lot of honesty and authenticity,” he explains. “I was actually a little leery of putting that song out first, just because I grew up singing in rock bands and I’ve always loved edgy music … and life has been pretty edgy for me at times. I wanted to put something out there that represents the bigger picture of who I am – and it turns out I did, I just didn’t realize what it was.”
Like “My Boy,” Shane co-wrote each of the 15 tracks on Backslider, painting a sonic “bigger picture” of not just himself, but life in small-town America – just as gritty as it is graceful. Each song speaks to Shane’s life journey, revealing different chapters of his story with a sound as distinctive as its maker.
The crunchy hooks of classic rock. The everyday poetry and nostalgia of country music. And the emotional electricity of Gospel and R&B – all with that punchy “edge” Shane knows so well. Feeling like a mix of The Black Crowes and John Mellencamp, the set was produced by Oscar Charles. And after “My Boy” set the truth-telling tone, the flood gates opened.
“It’s about more than just me,” Shane says, speaking of the album, but also his artistic approach. “Whether you’re from the United States or the other side of the world, we’ve probably experienced the same things: Heartbreak, family trouble, love, the yearning for a better life. These songs are my personal stories written so they rhyme … but I think they are stories that happen to each and every one of us.”
Tuesday of Wyoming’s Big Show is sponsored by Commerce Bank of Wyoming with support from Explore Rock Springs & Green River. The Sweetwater Events Complex will announce their entire concert line up the week of May 8th so stay tuned for more! For the most up to date information and a listing of all the family entertainment visit the website at www.SweetwaterEvents.com.
