The Top Hat is happy to welcome back Shakewell for a live New Year’s Eve performance on December 31, 2019.
About Shakewell
A funk brotherhood of lifelong friends and collaborators, Shakewell thumps out disco, soul, and mountain funk. No matter the venue, the energy of a Shakewell show is infectious. The band has built a devoted fan base through incendiary performances and the crowds have grown at an increasing pace.
Our latest efforts differ from previous music we’ve released in both sound and creation. As we’ve developed these songs over the last two years, “Shakewell” has naturally become a more deeply collaborative effort. Each of us has always had a voice in the music we’ve created in the past, brought forward through our individual strengths, but this album came together as a mix of demos that every member of the band had a hand in writing. The best part about bringing demos into the mix with musicians you trust is that others’ ideas can bolster and even improve an idea that was already great (and sometimes save a song that one might otherwise disregard or throw away).
The Album is separated into 3 parts, each a three-song EP with a differing vibe/core sound concept than the others. When we set out to record these songs we were honestly unsure as to whether we could finish the basic tracking in the 3 days we had allotted ourselves at Iron Wax Studios. Luckily for us, the vibe at the studio was perfect. We have worked with the studio’s creator, Alan Evans, on our last 2 efforts, so we knew going into this session that we trusted the producer to both capture great-sounding takes as well as give us direction when needed.
We also brought in a local Montana musician now living in Massachusetts, Owen Ross, to help with horn arranging, piano, guitar, bass, vocal tracking, and some mixing as well. His experience and ear were invaluable to this endeavor. We are still tying up a few loose ends before having the album fully mixed and mastered. We are aiming to have at least one single or EP released by Thanksgiving, with much more to come in preparation for our Top Hat set on New Year’s Eve!
Much Love,
Shakewell