“Doug Henry has been a real big help to me. You know, we were roommates for a while when he first bought Blue Cat. I tried to talk him out of buying it. I met him when he came to me when he was talking about buying it. One day somebody called me and said Doug Henry wants to have lunch with you. I didn`t know who Doug Henry was. So, I went to meet him for lunch and he said, “Well, I`m thinking about buying Blue Cat. What do you think?” “It`s like Don`t. It`s a tough business.” But, he did and he`s done real well with it. We ended up being real good friends and roommates for a while. We`ve had a lot of fun with it. Since then he`s been able to move a small club to a big club and he`s doing real well.”
When I asked what we could look forward to in Shawn`s future, he said, “Get married and move away. No, just kidding.” Then he added, “I don`t know, things are looking good with Jim. He`s got a great thing going. He`s a lot of fun. I`m still gonna be working with Junior Boy as much as I can. I love Andrew.”
”I`ll have to say in anything, when I talk about playing, Robert Lee was such a big help to me. He really was when I was in his band. He`s such a show business kinda guy. He does so much corporate stuff now that you don`t hear from him like you used to. Man, he taught me so much. We had more fun and there`s never been a better time playing than in those Greenville Avenue places. It was great. We didn`t travel hardly at all. Now days you try to spread yourself out. You know if you play at Blue Cat you don`t play in Deep Ellum two nights later. Try not to. But in those days we would literally roll our equipment across the street. Friday night we`d be here then Saturday night we`d roll everything across and stop the traffic. Then we`d go up the street. That was what was great about the ‘80`s on Greenville Avenue. Man, it was hot.”
He also spoke of playing with Robert Lee and of Deep Ellum in the ‘80’s. “And really, I`d never heard the word Deep Ellum. Never even heard the term. It was just a bunch of old buildings on Elm, Main and Commerce. It was just a bunch of old abandoned warehouses and radiator shops.” He mentioned Theatre Gallery, owned by Russell Hobbs, and 500 Café as a couple of locations they played.
Shawn has been involved in the entertainment business since he was a small child. He enjoys telling those childhood stories. “My mother made radio and television commercials so when they needed a kid`s voice they would bring in my brother and me. We would do the voice-overs. One time they were doing a commercial for the Oak Cliff Council of Churches. There was a bill coming up to fight putting liquor back in Oak Cliff. This commercial was supposed to be against putting liquor there. In the commercial there was a mom and I was the kid. My line was supposed to be, and they have a screen door effect, “Hey Mom, I`m going down to the five and dime next to the new liquor store.” I was five, I think. I got my lines mixed up and when it came to my line in the commercial I said, “Hey Mom, I`m going down to the new liquor store next to the five and dime.” The screen door slams and everyone went along with their dialog. They got to the end of it and people at the control were just dying laughing.”
“One day when they were doing a commercial they ran a tape with me sitting there, and this was 1964, the Beatles ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand` had just come out. I still have this tape. They said would you sing a song for us and I sang the whole song, “ I Wanna Hold Your Hand”. No music or anything. Every time I got to the lyrics I didn`t know I would just hum. “And when I duh, duh, duh, duh, Happy, duh”. It was so hilarious.” I was a big Beatles fan from the start.”
Currently Shawn is working part time helping with an organization called Flame, formerly The Deep Ellum Center for the Arts. Proudly, he describes the organization: “New people have taken over , Lisa Richardson, she`s the president, and two Producers, Chris and Candy Smith. They produce events to raise money to promote the arts in Deep Ellum. And for kids, too. They are going to have a theater and expose kids to theater and music. That`s their eventual goal, to have a music-mentoring program. That`s what I`m going to be working with. Right now, I`m just an associate producer of some of their shows. They did the Dallas Observer Music Awards and The Body Art Ball. I got in on that just a few months ago. It`s going to be a really neat program. They are going to be teaching kids that wouldn`t have exposure to music lessons. I thought I could bring in musician folks that would love to teach four or five kids at a time to give them some direction. They are going to have a theater and an arts thing. They can have galleries that are free. I`ve really been enjoying it. They work around my travel schedule. Although this week they are all in Mexico while I`m here playing music and checking the mail.”
Shawn has recorded with several local artists and as he continues his extended exposure, you will have many opportunities to enjoy his music.
When I asked what we could look forward to in Shawn`s future, he said, “Get married and move away. No, just kidding.” Then he added, “I don`t know, things are looking good with Jim. He`s got a great thing going. He`s a lot of fun. I`m still gonna be working with Junior Boy as much as I can. I love Andrew.”
”I`ll have to say in anything, when I talk about playing, Robert Lee was such a big help to me. He really was when I was in his band. He`s such a show business kinda guy. He does so much corporate stuff now that you don`t hear from him like you used to. Man, he taught me so much. We had more fun and there`s never been a better time playing than in those Greenville Avenue places. It was great. We didn`t travel hardly at all. Now days you try to spread yourself out. You know if you play at Blue Cat you don`t play in Deep Ellum two nights later. Try not to. But in those days we would literally roll our equipment across the street. Friday night we`d be here then Saturday night we`d roll everything across and stop the traffic. Then we`d go up the street. That was what was great about the ‘80`s on Greenville Avenue. Man, it was hot.”
He also spoke of playing with Robert Lee and of Deep Ellum in the ‘80’s. “And really, I`d never heard the word Deep Ellum. Never even heard the term. It was just a bunch of old buildings on Elm, Main and Commerce. It was just a bunch of old abandoned warehouses and radiator shops.” He mentioned Theatre Gallery, owned by Russell Hobbs, and 500 Café as a couple of locations they played.
Shawn has been involved in the entertainment business since he was a small child. He enjoys telling those childhood stories. “My mother made radio and television commercials so when they needed a kid`s voice they would bring in my brother and me. We would do the voice-
“One day when they were doing a commercial they ran a tape with me sitting there, and this was 1964, the Beatles ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand` had just come out. I still have this tape. They said would you sing a song for us and I sang the whole song, “ I Wanna Hold Your Hand”. No music or anything. Every time I got to the lyrics I didn`t know I would just hum. “And when I duh, duh, duh, duh, Happy, duh”. It was so hilarious.” I was a big Beatles fan from the start.”
Currently Shawn is working part time helping with an organization called Flame, formerly The Deep Ellum Center for the Arts. Proudly, he describes the organization: “New people have taken over , Lisa Richardson, she`s the president, and two Producers, Chris and Candy Smith. They produce events to raise money to promote the arts in Deep Ellum. And for kids, too. They are going to have a theater and expose kids to theater and music. That`s their eventual goal, to have a music-
Shawn has recorded with several local artists and as he continues his extended exposure, you will have many opportunities to enjoy his music.
