August 19, 2008
In Our Hearts Forever, Joe Shikany!
All of us in Sex And Violins are saddened by the sudden loss of our guitar player, Joe Shikany. Joe touched the hearts of everyone he met. He was a kind and loving person, one who's heart had room for the entire world and Joe shared his heart and his passion of life through his music. Joe will be tremendously missed by all that knew him...it is a tragic loss for his band mates,
his family, friends and the music industry. His contributions, dedication and commitment to his passion for playing will live on in our hearts and minds. Rock on Joe...we love you and will miss you!KING 5 Seattle News Link -click here-
Joe Shikany
Joe Shikany is a key and valuable asset to Sex And Violins. He co-wrote and played guitar on four of the songs on this record. He brings an extraordinary dynamic energy to the stage. His blues-rock melodic sense to his guitar playing is simply second-to-none
Joe is a native of Spokane, Washington. His early influences were the Beatles, the Stones, The Young Rascals, Vanilla Fudge, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Free and Jeff Beck He moved to Seattle and soon became a fixture in the Seattle music scene. As the lead guitarist/vocalist of many well-known Northwest bands, Joe’s resume reads like a Who’s Who of the Northwest rock scene.
Joe started with The Bards followed by a long stretch with Seattle band, Shyanne. Joe joined Seattle’s top band, Bighorn. As a member of Bighorn, Joe was signed to Columbia Records which released the bands' self-titled album. Bighorn toured the
country with several bands including Boston, Journey, and Van Halen. Bighorn eventually re-formed with a new name The Allies.
Joe left The Allies in and joined with Roger Fisher, best known as the lead guitarist of Heart. Joe recorded and toured the country with The Roger Fisher Band for two years, playing many dates with The Motels. During this time Joe auditioned to take Ace Frehley’s place in KISS…it didn’t happen, but he can honestly tell people he played and sang lead vocals with KISS…for 20 minutes!
Next, Joe became a member of Seattle band, Shots, for several years, playing all of the top nightclubs in the Northwest and writing and recording many original songs. Shots played at the original Bite of Seattle while it was held at Seattle’s Greenlake. While in Shots, Joe played guitar on a few tracks of Kenny G’s album “Gravity.” He also produced an album for his former band Shyanne, and was the lead vocalist on an album by Seattle-based Kidskin.
Following Shots, Joe played with the Seattle band China, and then briefly moved to New York to play with Nosmo King, a group composed of former members of Foghat. He then spent a year with Seattle rockers, Rail.
Joe spent most of the 90’s with one of his current bands, Magic Bus, playing music from the psychedelic 60s and 70s. He also was playing and recording with The Coast of Mercy, which received a fair amount of airplay on college radio stations. As a member of Magic Bus, Joe had the opportunity to entertain many professional baseball players due to the band’s relationship with former Seattle Mariners/Anaheim Angels pitcher Mark Langston. Playing in Cleveland twice…once for the All-Star game, at Disney World in Orlando, twice at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, and at The Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Magic Bus became a favorite at Major League Baseball functions.
In 2000, Joe joined Paul Rodgers’ (voice of Bad Company, Free, The Firm) solo band and toured the UK with Paul in 2001 substituting for Howard Leese (another former Heart guitarist.) Howard later rejoined the band and on Paul’s 2003-04 tour. Joe and Howard shared guitar duties marking the first time Paul toured with two guitarists.
Joe currently is a member of Seattle bands, Magic Bus, PowerCell, and KZOK’s Spike And The Impalers. He is also the bass player of The Davanos and N’Sane.Joe plays his own custom guitars, as well as Gibsons, Epiphones and Fenders. He plays through Marshall amps, and uses Digitech, Cry Baby and Danelectro effect pedals.
Quotes:
“Bournemouth, that's a good place to play "Seagull" I thought when I phoned the ticket line to see Paul Rodgers at the Pavilion Theatre. So I made my way down from inland Oxfordshire last Monday hoping and expecting to see a repeat of the awesome first leg of the tour at Wolverhampton the previous Monday. That was when "The Hunter" once again came to life with a staggering Kossoff-inspired guitar solo from Joe Shikany, as the audience sang the whole song in unison as one....."That was just like the old days" The Man said. …
…The thing that struck me about this set was that it was based around the songs that have made up all of Paul Rodgers' career, not simply Free or Bad Company, but the whole range through The Firm, the blues, the more recent solo albums, and even Beatles covers like the ones he has done with The British Rock Symphony. To cover as much material as possible, the instrumental solos were never over long, and only what was wanted for the purpose of the song; that's not to say that we didn't hear what the new band could do, because we heard it from Jeff Kathan for example on Fire and Water, from Lynn Sorensen on Mr Big, and from the excellent Joe Shikany many other times.”Paul Rodgers UK Tour, Feb. 19, 2001
© 2007/2008 SEXANDVIOLINS.COM ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Unauthorized duplication of any material on this site is a violation of applicable laws.
Visit us on MySpace at: www.myspace.com/sexandviolins
This site maintained by BanditArt