John Lee Shannon (www.johnleeshannon.com)
Brooklyn, NY
In addition to my own solo project, I regularly work in collaboration with:
Zephaniah Ohora
Cliff Westfall
Bonehart Flannigan
Brother Roy
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
I started playing guitar when I was 15 or 16. My mom is a huge music lover, we were always listening to the radio in the car and going to concerts growing up. My dad is from North Carolina and a massive fan of old time and SOME bluegrass. Lots of banjos and mandolins around, and he would take me to jam sessions when i was kid. At the same time, my older brother is a drummer and was always a musician as far back as i can remember, so I was always around his bands and all of that. I think for me the seed was planted early on. When I did start playing, coming from a small town in Michigan, there were only a few other kids around who were playing guitar. So before long I joined a band, and the rest is history!
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
When I was first starting out I was massively into Stevie Ray Vaughan. There was a good 2 or 3 years where I was just completely obsessed. A little while later I discovered Albert Lee and became really interested in country guitar. Much later on, this sort of led me to Chet Atkins, who by far has had made the biggest impression on me as a musician and a guitar player. Through him I really discovered the whole world of fingerstyle guitar. Along the way, I’ve probably gone through a phase of really geeking out over just about every great guitarist there ever was. I just really love the guitar as an instrument, and so I’m always excited to find something new that I’ve never heard before.
Nowadays, my favorites players are those who’s greatness manifests in a slightly more understated way. People like Ry Cooder, Clarence White, Bill Frisell, Andres Segovia. I’ve really been trying to check out more contemporary players too. I’ve been a huge fan of Julian Lage since i first became aware of him, and more recently I’ve gotten into guys like Blake Mills and Joey Landreth. Both such wonderful, deep musicians. There’s also a guy named Ryan Dugre, a fellow Brooklynite, who is just incredible. A really special musician and guitarist who composes beautiful music for solo guitar. I’ve also gotten a lot out of listening to songwriters like Randy Newman and classical composers such as J.S. Bach and Debussy.
What drew you to using pedals initially? Have you been using them throughout your playing career? How have pedals helped to shape your sound, or influence the style that you’ve created?
I’m drawn to pedals primarily because they give you control over your sound in a live situation and they can be a source of inspiration. And that’s very much how I have used them throughout my playing career. Truth be told, I’m not a major pedal guy, and I am perfectly happy to plug a good sounding guitar straight into a good sounding amp (and still do sometimes!) and play. The reality though, is that there are many times when the gig just doesn’t allow for that. I work primarily as a sideman with singers and in that scenario, you really have to be conscientious of volume because the last thing you want to do is make it hard for the person singing to hear themselves or be dominating the mix out front. Pedals make that a lot easier to do, whether its using a compressor or a drive pedal to make the amp feel good at a lower volume, or distortion/fuzz to get a more powerful tone without turning up. Not to mention being able to switch back and forth between different sounds quickly.
Then there are the more inspiration-based pedals that aren’t as critical to your sound but that can add so much to a part and generate so much inspiration for your playing. Things like reverb/tremolo (if they’re not in the amp), delay, chorus or univibe/leslie simulators. Even farther out stuff like ring modulators or synths. These can be so inspiring during the writing process, and also to the working musician like me who plays night after night. Sometimes these pedals can really keep you engaged if you’re feeling bored with your playing on the gig.
That being said, I don’t spend a ton of time dabbling in gear because I’d rather be practicing or writing! I’ll usually do some exhaustive research to see what’s out there when I discover a need for a certain sound, and once I find what I’m looking for I tend to stick with it. i play as much acoustic guitar as I do electric, and so as far as style goes, I tend to focus a lot more on the music itself and the different sounds i can get out of my hands and the instrument and less on guitars/amps/pedals, which are really just a means to an end.
What’s your current setup look like? Take us through your pedal rig (feel free to include amps and instruments as well if you’d like):
I’m generally gigging in NYC so traveling light is always a priority. I typically plug a Telecaster (I have two, one is made by a local luthier and good friend of mine named Lou Femenella; the other is a parts guitar) into my pedalboard which has: A tuner (typically a Sonic Research ST-200), a JAM Ripple Phaser, usually a drive pedal of some kind (lately I’ve been using a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 but it regularly rotates with an early TS-808 reissue), a Strymon Flint for Reverb/Tremolo (both of which i only use when a backline amp doesn’t have one or both – and I also have a Walrus Monument and a J. Rockett Boing which are both excellent), and a Strymon El Capistan for long delays and slap back. I also just recently picked up the Strymon Lex rotary speaker simulator which is really great. I was previously using a JHS Emperor Chorus pedal turned all the way up to get a Leslie effect, but the Lex is awesome and allows me to indulge all of my Jimmy Smith flights of fancy. I also have an old Memory Man which I really like, but it’s big! I plug all of that into either my ’66 Fender Princeton Reverb or my ’68 Fender Deluxe Reverb, or whichever backline amp I’m working with.
Favorite type of pedal (drive, delay, fuzz, etc. – more than one answer is always acceptable!):
If we’re counting it as a pedal, I’d have to say Tremolo! Especially if we include harmonic tremolo, I just think it’s such a simple and beautiful sound that adds so much to anything you play. The thing I like most about pedals is that at their best, they add an acoustic element to electric guitar by creating a more 3-Dimensional experience than just a magnet sending a string’s vibration through a speaker directly into your ear. When you play an acoustic guitar, you hear it in the room and all around you before you really hear the source of the sound. You lose a lot of that with electric guitar, but things like tremolo and reverb help take away some of that immediacy of attack and to me, make it sound more natural.
Tied for 1st place is a tuner, preferably strobe, because being in tune is tremendously underrated! Seriously, it took me a long time to figure out that the guitar players who sound better than everyone else all have two things in common: they have great time-feel and they’re really in tune. Probably why metronomes and tuners tend to come as a pair.
You’re stranded on a desert island – which three (3) of the following do you want to have?
Instruments: A Fender Telecaster, a 000-sized steel-string Martin, and a classical guitar.
Amps: A blackface Super Reverb, a brownface Super, and a Tweed Super, all Fender, and all vintage please!
Pedals: A solid-state Echoplex, an analog chorus pedal, and a silicon fuzz face so I can pick up some radio stations!
What’s up next for you/your band(s)?
I’m recording an album of original instrumental music for solo guitar this fall that will be produced by my dear friend Neal Casal. It’s something I’ve been working on for some time now and am really excited to finally bring to fruition.
The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
Never tried it! I had a Keeley clone for a while which was really not for me. So based on that, I’d have to guess ‘hate it’.
Any last comments, promos or anything you’d like to talk about?
Thanks for having me! I have a new website that just launched, so if anyone wants to find out more about what I’m up to, where I’m playing and who with, etc., you can find me and links to all of my social channels at www.johnleeshannon.com
Thanks so much to John Lee Shannon for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out www.johnleeshannon.com, and check their tour page to see when he’s headed to a town near you! Cheers!
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