"Groovy music from the heart with wiggling toes." That's Caldwell Shine. Imagine the Earth - relaxed, and dancing to an infectious grass-roots vibe inside a blending of rock, jazz, jams, and a little folk. For listeners of Dave Matthews, Steely Dan, or Sting - Caldwell Shine is your spot for wiggling toes.
The sound of this band is rich - beginning with jazzy and very rhythmic acoustic guitar chords, caressed with Gadd-like drums and rich bass expressions. The vocals will sometimes tell a story while other times, they rhyme a catchy hook - always executed with clear and full expression right from the heart and often while searching for the melody in the harmony. Top it all off with a full sonic range of lead guitar that sometimes adds touches of Santana, Tim Reynolds, and Larry Carlton. Sometimes the band puts the beat where you expect it - sometimes it's where you don't.
This band of brothers is a living, breathing, chuckling creation led by songwriter Caldwell Shine. Together, Caldwell Shine offers the listener combined musical talents from many different genres. The music is always catchy - sometimes going on a journey - always interesting, and always packing a groove to familiar and new places.
Caldwell Shine
Caldwell Shine was born in Dayton, Ohio and raised for the most part in Texas. He discovered a life-long love of music at an early age. A fill-up on disco and middle eastern music started the journey off. As a youngster, Caldwell spent much time with his mom in her dance studio running sound while watching her move to middle eastern dance music during her career as a professional dance instructor. The middle eastern beats were always heavy with drums, and very trancey. It is during this time that Caldwell credits his mom with developing his passion with the seduction of rhythm.
Around the age of 12, Caldwell took guitar lessons for a little while at the urging of his mother. A little later on, Caldwell was introduced to classical music and jazz in a band program demonstration for his middle school and over the years excelled at playing the trumpet.
After finishing high school, Caldwell sold his horn, moved into the world on his own - and didn't look back. He graduated from college, took a job in corporate America, and then moved to Austin, Texas.
In January of 2000 he decided to pick up the guitar as a result of a new year's resolution to play music again. It consumed him and he yielded to the music and the rhythm. His guitar instructor, Mark Tokach, was the critical element.
Caldwell soon found his calling. He attended the Kerrville Folk Festival's Songwriting school in 2002 and learned the basics of songwriting. From that point forward, Caldwell wrote constantly and amassed a large amount of songs. Finally, in 2003, Caldwell started looking for some nice folks to form a band, and achieve the goal.
And what is the goal?
"To create music that I love and that people will love, and which contains interesting, flowing rhythms with rich chords - and that finally evokes all the good out of us and makes us move how we want to feel." love her...
Silas Parker
Silas Parker was born in the Ozark Mountains of Northern Arkansas. His parents, both musicians, exposed their son to a variety of musical genres at an early age. He began playing bass guitar in 1990. Silas has performed professionally since he was 15 years old, living and touring the West Coast, Europe, and Texas. He lives to play good music with good friends. Silas is known to have a contagious smile on stage and loves to entertain an audience.
Silas started performing with Caldwell in the early Fall of 2005.
Clem Trout
Clem Trout hails from SoCal but now calls the Hill Country home. He plays most things with strings and frets. After working as a touring musician/singer-songwriter for some years, he got out of the music business to pursue a career. Now, he’s back where he belongs, coaxing sweet sounds from a guitar.
Clem started performing with Caldwell in the early Fall of 2005.
Alan Vela
Alan Vela was born and raised in and around H-town (get down). He got into playing drums at the age of 11, but developed most of his skills in high school playing on the school's drum line, jazz band, and in a rock band he and his friends created. Alan's love for funky fusion beats and cool jazzy licks, combined with having been raised on classic rock and roll, contribute to his own personal style. Alan is currently a student at the University of Texas and in addition to jammin with Caldwell Shine since the summer of '06, he can be seen layin it down in the Texas Basketball Band. If there's one thing you need to know about Alan Vela, it's that he's all about the groove.