J

Born in England 1975  and raised in Toronto Shawn Hall got his first harp from his Grandma at the age of 14. In grade 7 he  joined a Guitar guild as the only harp player and thus began his wild  journey  into the world of Blues sneaking into clubs around town like Grossmans, The Silver Dollar Room, Chicagos, and watching local greats Jerome Godboo, Paul Reddick, Mark ‘ The Bird’ Stafford to name a few. His high school band Tied To the Tracks got him into the University circuit at age 18 opening for such greats as Big Sugar. In 2001 Hall moved out west to BC and shortly after met his future Bandmate Matt Rogers who would later form The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer, a Folk Blues Duo. In 2012 he was offered a career changing opportunity to open for Blues legend Taj Mahal at the Kaslo Jazz Festival. Summer of 2013 took him just about everywhere in Canada from Montreal Jazz fest, to Ottawa Blues, Winnipeg Folk and thats really where the world hit him deepest was onstage at dozens of workshops playing alongside greats like, Bombino, Jason Collette, Hays Karl, The Rheostatics,  & Matt Anderson, and swapping road stories sharing musical dialogs. Harpaxe  has brought shawn all over the world to festivals in Australia, The UK, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, and France supporting bands Like Dr. Dog, Clap your hands say yeah, & Xixa. He’s also toured supporting  The North African Grammy winning Tinariwen. Over the last decade he’s been nominated for Multiple Maple blues awards, Western Canadian Music awards, and 2 Junos. In 2018  Hall took an Artist in residency at the Banff Centre where he met Brooklyn multi – instrumentalist Bradford Reid of the Blue Man Group fame, they soon after formed  Satellite and the Harpoonist experimenting with sounds from Lee Oscars War era and continue playing today. Winter of 22/23  he’s been in Austin with Gordie Johnson making  records as ‘ The Harpoonist’  as he embarks on a solo career and Harpaxe winds down after a mighty  16 yrs.

Performances

Sunday August 1st, 2021

7:00PM ~ Mainstage

© Calgary Blues Music Association - Powered by Big Table Systems