Great Shawn Lane article

This Friday marks the fifth anniversary of Shawn Lane's passing. I was lucky enough to meet Shawn in 1993, and saw him perform live twice. He was without a doubt the most talented guitar player I have ever seen or heard. If you are a Guitar Channel reader you are likely familiar with Shawn's playing, but you may not know that he suffered from psoriatic arthritis for most of his life, and was in chronic pain for many years. Jessie Baker has written a great piece about Shawn for FOG Magazine; an online publication that provides education and support for chronic pain sufferers. I encourage all of you to read this article to learn more about Shawn and the debilitating medical issues he coped with on a daily basis.

FOG Magazine: The Pain of Shawn Lane

Comments

[laurie monk]

The details for the meeting are here: http://events.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&eventID=459743.91408

[Amazing Guitar Videos]

Do you have any videos of him playing? Anything on acoustic guitar? Do you consider him better than Phil Keaggy?

[Rich]

There are tons of videos on YouTube and Google Video. He certainly had more chops than Keaggy, or anyone else in my opinion. Whether he was "better" than Keaggy (whom I really like) is totally subjective.

[JamesC]

Thanks for pointing me to that article. It really covered a side of Shawn Lane that I didnt know much about. Kudos to you. RIP Shawn

[Stratoblogster]

This may seem odd to some, but I really love Shawn's slower bluesy playing more than his shredding. For example, he covered Mike Stern's Upside Downside live (on Youtube), which I really didn't care for-- because Stern's long sustained Albert King bends really make the solo in that tune for me. On the other hand, Shawn's cover of Hendrix' Peace in Mississippi is really groovy.

There's also a youtube vid out there of Shawn jamming with Eric Johnson which is very cool.

Lane was very musical, but when many people look to him mainly as a shredder, they're missing a lot of other stuff. Steve Morse is a similar example.

[Rich]

JP - I hear you 100%. Shawn had great, Billy Gibbons-style touch to his blues phrases. Very strong and mature-sounding. I could listen to Shawn play blues stuff all day without the shredding, and still be happy.