Billy Shaw Jr.: It starts with a hook
Who: Billy Shaw Jr., 46, who has been performing for about six years.
Bio: Shaw, a Tucson native and 1989 grad of Santa Rita High School, started playing violin in fourth grade.
"I always loved music," he said, ticking off his childhood playlist that ran the gamut from Willie Nelson to Barbra Streisand. "I played in orchestra as a kid and did some talent shows."
After high school he put his violin away, seemingly for good. “I was kind of tired of classical music and I just thought that was all you did with the violin was play classical music," he said.
He went to the University of Arizona, where he majored in applied mathematics. His rare encounters with music were when he and a buddy wrote little ditties.
"Me and my buddy entered this talent show contest at the UA and we wrote a couple of ridiculous songs — one about a goldfish and one about someone stealing our bicycle seat," he said.
About six years ago, his friends roped him into competing in Tucson country radio station KIIM 99.5 FM's "Lucky Break" karaoke contest.
“I did two songs,” he recalled, but don’t ask him to remember what they were.
“It’s such a blur because I was terrified,” said the father of two whose day job is in data analysis. “I only did it because my friends forced me to do it. I told everyone, 'I’m going to get up there and they are going to laugh at me. It's going to be your fault and I’ll never do it again.' I didn't win, but it went way better than I expected.”
Shaw was encouraged to participate in other talent contests, which brought him to the attention of a band in search of a backup singer. When they asked him if he played an instrument, Shaw said he was learning guitar and he mentioned he had played violin as a kid. The band leader was thrilled; a fiddle player. In country music, violin is fiddle with a few adjustments in playing technique.
Shaw spent a year with the band and ”got my fiddle fingers working" before striking out on his own with the Billy Shaw Jr. Band. They mix a smattering of cover songs including, you guessed it, "Devil Went Down to Georgia," with Shaw's originals, which he writes solo or with his bandmate Laki Skouras and his fiancé Jessica Northey.
Last summer, Shaw competed in the second annual "Nash Next" songwriters competition. He won the local contest and went on to compete in the national event in Nashville.
Where he writes: “I need to be kind of by myself, away from distractions. I can’t be like at a coffee shop or (somewhere) where there’s too much going on around me. I want to be some place where I’m by myself and able to just kind of be with my thoughts. If I get distracted then I’m writing a different song," he said, noting that most times you can find him at his little computer desk at the home he shares with Northey, or on the porch if it’s not 110 outside.
“When I'm driving I’ll be thinking about the song. I’ll toss (the ideas) over and over again in my head while I’m driving," he added.
The process: “I may not even know what I’m going to do about the music until I’ve at least gotten a verse and a chorus, and then I may go grab my guitar and come up with the music. I might grab a beer, or I might be on a back porch. ... I start with a stream of thought and I have the first little phrase and I just start writing things down. After I get eight, nine, 10 lines down, then I start to think about the form of the song, the story. Your introduction, middle and end. … I come up with the beginning and the end and then I can kind of fill in the middle. I want the song to take a journey. … It’s almost like writing a really short book or short movie.”
It’s my story, or close to it: “It’s good to write about your own experiences and it helps you deal with them. But it’s fun if you can write from someone else’s perspective, something that happened to a friend or something you can relate to. … Or experiences you wish you had.”
What he's written: Among the dozens of songs he's written is one of his latest, the uptempo “Cowboy At Heart" — “I was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona / Raised by my mama because my daddy didn’t wanna / No callouses on my hands from working on a farm / But my heart is calloused from the days that were hard" — and the proposal ballad "I Will If You Say I Do," which he penned for Northey and debuted during KIIM's songwriting segment "Ten Minute Tune."
“She had no clue at all. It wasn’t until I got to a verse and a chorus and by the second verse and chorus it started to hit her that I was singing it to her and it was a proposal song," Shaw said. (She said yes.)
Where will this ride go?: “I want to see how far I can take it … I’ll just keep taking the next step and see what happens. I’m already happy with it. It brings me joy to do music and to perform. It’s almost like a second chance at something that I kind of gave up on way back when, didn’t think anything would come of it. It’s great and I love it. I'm going to keep doing it as long as I can. If my success dwindles and I’m just doing it at home for friends and family, then fine. But if I’m in Nashville, then great.”
Where you can see him: The Billy Shaw Jr Band plays the Maverick Live Country Club, 6622 E. Tanque Verde Road, on Aug. 3 and with Arizona Originals Aug. 16; and the Outlaw Saloon, 1302 W. Roger Road, on Aug. 18 and Sept. 1.
Follow him: facebook.com/BillyShawJr
Caiden Brewer: From the gridiron to the stage
Who: Caiden Brewer, 22.
Bio: The Tucson native "grew up on the crossroads of Marana, Tucson and Oro Valley" and was a standout linebacker and two-time All-American at Mountain View High School in Marana. In his senior year, during the second round of the playoffs and with very real prospects of playing college football, Brewer blew out his knee.
“I just really was looking forward to being a football player," he recalled. "And then second round playoffs I ended up getting over and undered and blew out my knee and ended my career. But it kind of ended up being a blessing in disguise."
As he lay recuperating after surgery, Brewer picked up his dad's old guitar and taught himself to play by ear. Before long he could pick out traditional country classics like "Midnight in Montgomery" and songs by Patsy Cline and Hank Williams, and he sang along.
"I grew up with Patsy Cline and Merle Haggard, but at the same time with Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi,” he said.
Brewer learned chord progressions and soon found himself stringing together original riffs until they made sense. Literature was his favorite subject in school — "I loved hearing stories and telling them," he said — so naturally he veered toward writing.
“The first song I ever wrote was 'Dancing on a Dirt Road’. My buddy and I were sitting on the bed of my truck and he came up with a really cool guitar melody and I was free-styling,” Brewer recalled.
Before long, Brewer discovered that his true passion was worlds away from the football field.
Inspired by life: “I draw from my own experiences but at the same time I take things that happen in life and … I try to express how I would react at that moment in time," he explained. "Typically what happens is I will sit down with my guitar and I’ll start playing and I’ll make up lyrics with it.”
Where he writes: “I write everywhere. I will even be sitting at a stop light and I’ll come up with a song. Sometimes I will come up with a chord progression and I’ll put lyrics to that. I’ll listen to how the guitar made me feel and if it was a dramatic song I’ll put dramatic lyrics.”
The perfect song: “The true definition of a perfect song is the song that I feel like you did your best to try to relate to it or to tell your story through the song. If you can look back at a song and say yep I meant everything I said in the song. The best song you can write is the most honest song you can write. If you’re not having fun doing what you’re doing than you're not doing it right."
Big dreams, bright lights: "I want to take this as far as the good Lord will let me. I don’t know what God has in store for me. I would love to maybe one day make it a big deal I would love to continue on this journey and one day look back and see how far I’ve come.”
Where you can see him: Brewer is pretty booked in July, including shows at Oracle Inn, 305 E. American Ave. in Oracle, on July 14; Pinetop's The House on July 21; and Borderlands Brewing Co., 119 E. Toole Ave., on July 28.
Follow him: facebook.com/caiden.brewer.3
Kayleigh Walker: Finding her voice
Who: Kayleigh Walker, 22.
Bio: Walker grew up in Marana and graduated from Mountain View High School in 2013. As a kid, she sang in various children's choirs inlcuding Kids Unlimited and was active in the school choir and orchestra from elementary through high school. She got involved in bluegrass as a teen after her father saw a flier in The Folk Shop advertising a Desert Bluegrass Association jam session.
"He always has loved music so we were like let’s give it a try. From the very first night I was totally hooked on bluegrass," she recalled.
Walker joined bluegrass jams and sang in pick-up bands. She also once sang the National Anthem before 15,000 people in Nashville at a bluegrass conference, and even tried out for "American Idol" and "The Voice." ("I didn't get far," she said.)
But her music dreams took a backseat to her romantic ideals of marrying her high school sweetheart Chris right after graduation and moving to Nashville. Her parents weren't thrilled with the idea, so the couple slowed things down — "We thought it through," she said. Walker landed a job in a dentist's office and they waited a couple years before marrying last November. Her husband is now in the process of getting his CDL license.
New to songwriting: Walker wrote her first song when she was 18. It was about a young couple dreaming of running away to Nashville and getting married. Sounds familiar.
"You want to write about what’s important to you and things that come from your heart, but at the same time you want to write about things people can relate to," she explained.
Drawing inspiration from bluegrass: "My songwriting is a mix of folk and Americana and bluegrass. I always consider (bluegrass) as the foundation of country music. A lot of people that played bluegrass in the time when it was really popular, it was mostly the blue-collar or farmers. In their spare time they jammed and played bluegrass. It’s the roots, I would say, of what country music is and where it’s going.”
Telling her story: Since meeting Jessica Northey and Billy Shaw Jr. and attending an Arizona Originals songwriting showcase, Walker has started writing more. She also has written with Northey and considers Shaw a mentor.
"I’m learning to take a chance and not be nervous about how people are going to perceive a song," she said. "Learning to be me and not be nervous. You're taking your life and putting it to music.”
Where she writes: “I love sitting in a coffee shop or my living room floor. Where ever I feel it, that’s where I go."
The process: "I write a couple times a week, not full songs, sometimes just snippets," she said. "My dad always told me to keep a pen and paper on my night stand (in case an idea comes during the night). But I use my phone."
Really, she's not nervous: Saturday's show at the Rialto will be a rare occasion for Walker, who doesn't really play out in public.
“I’m super excited," she said. "It’s a weird thing. It’s kind of a feeling of being at home.
“Singing has always been a dream of mine ever since I was little. I had the dream of going to Nashville and pursuing music as a career. But I’m at a point where I’m just trying to figure it out. This is a great opportunity and I’m excited to share what I’m writing. I hope it leads me somewhere, but I’m along for the ride. I’m going to see where it goes.”
