Shane Simpson is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

guitarist from

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. Simpson is a

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

, guitar instructor,

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

and

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...

. He performs technically demanding

fingerstyle Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plect ...

compositions.

Musical career

Simpson attended the jazz program at

Humber College The Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, rebranded as Humber Polytechnic since 2024, is a public Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1967, Humber has three mai ...

in Toronto and in 2000 Simpson started the "Shane Simpson Band" that included Lynn Hanson. Since early 2004, Simpson has toured with three-time

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

winner

David Francey David Francey (born 1954) is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. He is the recipient of four Juno Awards and three Canadian Folk Music Awards. Early life Francey was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. He immigrated to Canada with his family at age 12. ...

Debut album

The band's debut album "Sketches", which was a fusion of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, jazz,

flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...

, and

bluegrass music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass has roots in African America ...

. The song "Not Talking At All" was chosen by the members of Blue Rodeo to be included in a "Best of the New Music Network" compilation CD.

Second album

Simpson's second release, ''More Electric'' appeared on the television broadcast on

Rogers Television Rogers TV (stylized as Rogers tv) is a group of English-language community channels owned by Rogers Communications. Many of these channels share common programs. Rogers TV broadcasts in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and L ...

"Front Row Centre." The where song "Nowhere Near" became one of the 16 winning songs in Canada to appear in ''Canadian Music'' magazine's "Great Canadian Talent Search." Stacey Board's review of "more electric" in musesmuse.com praises Simpson's "versatile guitar playing" and says that he "...did an excellent job of self-producing this CD", which has "...captured great energy in each song." However, Board states that " s lyrics though are lost on me. They are kind of free form imagery that obviously connect for him emotionally but don't connect for me."

Third album

In 2004, Paul Bourdeau recorded the album "Wild Rice", which was inspired by

Tony Rice David Anthony Rice (June 8, 1951 – December 25, 2020) was an American bluegrass guitarist and singer. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz. He was inducted into the In ...

's music. Simpson and Bourdeau's jazz-grass guitar-duo playing was reviewed in the November 2004 copy of ''

Acoustic Guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

''. C. Michael Bailey’s review of Wild Rice in AllAboutJazz.com calls it “...a damn fine recording of two very talented and very different guitar players.” Bailey calls Simpson’s playing “finesse-oriented”, and says that the album will appeal to fans of David Grisman, Bela Fleck, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, and Nickel Creek.

Recent activities

In 2006, Ottawa Life Magazine included Shane Simpson in the magazine’s “Ottawa’s top 50" list for 2006, a list of the top fifty Ottawans in the fields of “medicine, law, business, the arts, writers, architects, politics and media” (of which only the top ten are numbered). The paragraph on Simpson called him “The Fred Astaire of the Fretboard” and states that his articles on music and guitar transcriptions appear regularly in leading guitar publications.

Discography

* ''Sketches'' (2001) * ''More Electric'' (2002) * ''Wild Rice'' (2004) * ''The First Set - Live From Folk Alley'' (2006 as guitarist for David Francey) * ''Hi-Phi'' (2006 performance with James Cohen)

Instructional

* ''Shane Simpson - Jazz Guitar'' (DVD)

References

External links

Shane Simpson's Official Site

Segment Multimedia's Official Site

David Francey's Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Shane Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian blues guitarists Canadian male guitarists Canadian jazz guitarists Canadian male jazz musicians Canadian male singer-songwriters Canadian singer-songwriters Canadian women singer-songwriters Musicians from Ottawa Writers from Ottawa Living people