On a recent April afternoon, I had the pleasure of sitting outdoors with Shawn Phares and learning a little about his background. He had some very interesting stories to share. A true Texas musician with his own distinctive style and charisma, Shawn has played with many widely known artists.
Born and raised in Oak Cliff, Shawn attended Kimbell High School. He presently lives in North Dallas but for a few years was a resident of Deep Ellum. Over a year ago he left the Dallas area to give the Austin music scene a try. “I have a brother there. I got down there and found out that the music scene there was not everything it’s cracked up to be. I felt like I had moved a million miles away. I thought Id` go down there and pick up some things. There were like three keyboard players and they had all the work. Everything I called on it was three guys. Rod McCowan, my buddy, told me “These three guys will be who you`ll be competing with”. When I got down there, he was right. They had everything locked down. The only few times I worked is when one of them was sick or something. You know the music scene now, I just didn`t see it as being as exciting as everybody thought. I stayed a little over a year and then I came back to Dallas.” Shawn has been back four months now and is continuously booked two to three months in advance.
When asked to talk about growing up in Oak Cliff and knowing the Vaughn`s, Shawn shares, “My older brother Scott is a guitar player. A great guitar player. He is seven years older than I am. He and Steve were the same age. Scott`s band always rehearsed in our house a lot. So when I`d come home after school they`d all be over there playing. Steve played in a band Soul Expression. That`s the band Scott was in. In fact, Scott was the original guitar player. Steve came and auditioned to be the bass player. Scott heard how good he was on the guitar, so Scott took the bass. And that`s where I learned from ‘cause we had a piano. My brother plays piano, too. That`s where I learned, from him. We always had a band all set up in the living room. All that stuff was there. So that`s what gave me the opportunity to play.”
He said that experience and being in Oak Cliff were his main inspirations. He said, “It`s really bizarre if you think about it. It was Joe Kubak and all those people who came from over there. Right across the street from us was a mini storage warehouse building and those little warehouses everyone would rent them to play in. It was like a garage band thing. The ones right up the street from us every night there`d be four or five bands. It was perfect for those days, you know it would be hot in the summer and cold in the winter but you get in there and put up sound stuff and calk ‘em and have little rehearsals before there were rehearsal studios. It was fun. I used to go up there and it was like going clubbing. You could hear four or five bands going from one warehouse to the other.”
Shawn has a two-year associates degree in music. He pursued a four-year degree in music but once he began playing he found it difficult to attend class at 8:00 in the morning.
Other than his Hammond B3 and Yamaha SP80 piano, he keeps a 5’-5’ Baby Grand as well as “guitars and stuff”. He explains, “That`s the two keyboards cause I`m mainly a roots player. I play piano and organ and a lot of synthesizer stuff.”
Being a “gun for hire” and working between Jim Suhler and Junior Boy, Shawn stays very busy. “Yeah, I play with a lot of people. At Blue Cat before, I have left my stuff set up and play the next three nights in bands with anybody that comes through and I`m there. But mainly I play with Jim Suhler`s band, Monkey Beat, and Andrew Junior Boy Jones. I love both of them.”
With Betty Lewis starting out like a whirlwind, Shawn has added her to his list of bands to play with. He said, “Right, I`m playing on her CD. She`s on her way to Paris. I don`t know if you heard how it came about, but she and I were in Memphis, Tennessee and I ran into Ron Smith. He`s the guitar tech for Benard Allison. Ron I knew from playing in Europe myself. I had met Ron over there when I playing with Lucky Peterson. I hung out with Ron over in Paris; that`s where he lives. And I introduced him to Betty and gave him her tape when we saw him in Memphis at B.B. King`s and he took it back and gave it to somebody. She`s great. As soon as they heard it they booked her for three weeks over there.”
Born and raised in Oak Cliff, Shawn attended Kimbell High School. He presently lives in North Dallas but for a few years was a resident of Deep Ellum. Over a year ago he left the Dallas area to give the Austin music scene a try. “I have a brother there. I got down there and found out that the music scene there was not everything it’s cracked up to be. I felt like I had moved a million miles away. I thought Id` go down there and pick up some things. There were like three keyboard players and they had all the work. Everything I called on it was three guys. Rod McCowan, my buddy, told me “These three guys will be who you`ll be competing with”. When I got down there, he was right. They had everything locked down. The only few times I worked is when one of them was sick or something. You know the music scene now, I just didn`t see it as being as exciting as everybody thought. I stayed a little over a year and then I came back to Dallas.” Shawn has been back four months now and is continuously booked two to three months in advance.
When asked to talk about growing up in Oak Cliff and knowing the Vaughn`s, Shawn shares, “My older brother Scott is a guitar player. A great guitar player. He is seven years older than I am. He and Steve were the same age. Scott`s band always rehearsed in our house a lot. So when I`d come home after school they`d all be over there playing. Steve played in a band Soul Expression. That`s the band Scott was in. In fact, Scott was the original guitar player. Steve came and auditioned to be the bass player. Scott heard how good he was on the guitar, so Scott took the bass. And that`s where I learned from ‘cause we had a piano. My brother plays piano, too. That`s where I learned, from him. We always had a band all set up in the living room. All that stuff was there. So that`s what gave me the opportunity to play.”
He said that experience and being in Oak Cliff were his main inspirations. He said, “It`s really bizarre if you think about it. It was Joe Kubak and all those people who came from over there. Right across the street from us was a mini storage warehouse building and those little warehouses everyone would rent them to play in. It was like a garage band thing. The ones right up the street from us every night there`d be four or five bands. It was perfect for those days, you know it would be hot in the summer and cold in the winter but you get in there and put up sound stuff and calk ‘em and have little rehearsals before there were rehearsal studios. It was fun. I used to go up there and it was like going clubbing. You could hear four or five bands going from one warehouse to the other.”
Shawn has a two-
Other than his Hammond B3 and Yamaha SP80 piano, he keeps a 5’-
Being a “gun for hire” and working between Jim Suhler and Junior Boy, Shawn stays very busy. “Yeah, I play with a lot of people. At Blue Cat before, I have left my stuff set up and play the next three nights in bands with anybody that comes through and I`m there. But mainly I play with Jim Suhler`s band, Monkey Beat, and Andrew Junior Boy Jones. I love both of them.”
With Betty Lewis starting out like a whirlwind, Shawn has added her to his list of bands to play with. He said, “Right, I`m playing on her CD. She`s on her way to Paris. I don`t know if you heard how it came about, but she and I were in Memphis, Tennessee and I ran into Ron Smith. He`s the guitar tech for Benard Allison. Ron I knew from playing in Europe myself. I had met Ron over there when I playing with Lucky Peterson. I hung out with Ron over in Paris; that`s where he lives. And I introduced him to Betty and gave him her tape when we saw him in Memphis at B.B. King`s and he took it back and gave it to somebody. She`s great. As soon as they heard it they booked her for three weeks over there.”
