Welcome to the Shane Fontayne thread!

Before we get to the good stuff, here's a little information about this site.  This is a message board dedicated to the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD).  Neil Taylor is our gracious host, who runs this site with the assistance of voluntary donations.  If you would like to make a donation to this site, please CLICK HERE or use the button on the top of the screen.  If you intend to visit this thread often (and I hope you do), PLEASE BOOKMARK THE SITE.

Please take a look around, and you will see that we are a laid back, friendly bunch (most of the time, haha!).  We talk about other things besides OMD around here!  For instance:  Got something to complain about?  Get it off your chest in ROOM 101.  Wanna just shoot the breeze?  Post a message in THAT LONGEST THREAD.  In the mood for fun and games?  Check out the THREE WORD STORY.  I hope you will stop in and say Hi.

For those who don't know who Shane Fontayne is (like I did until recently), he is a guitarist and has quite an impressive career resume, having toured with and/or recorded with such artists as Chris Botti, Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, Sting and Bruce Springsteen.  How he has avoided becoming a household name is a mystery to me!  The best place to find out about Shane Fontayne is at his website.  There you will find a comprehensive biography and links to various of Shane's musings about life as a musician.  The site is a little out of date, but is the most valuable source of information about Shane and his music.  There are also some very interesting links related to the release a few years ago of his album, What Nature Intended, which is available for purchase from his website or at CD Baby.  This thread is about the ancillary stuff.  I have no inside knowledge of anything he might be working on; I do this because I just . . . like the guy.  

Incidentally, Peter Barakan (Shane's elder brother) and Shane Barakan (Shane's son) each have their own threads.

The information of this thread is, for the most part, in chronological order according to the timeline of Shane's career.  But before that, here is some interesting miscellany to start with:

Video:  Shane on D'Addario strings

Interview:  Mescalina Interviste (January 12, 2004)

Interview:  Ferrante's Power Equipment (2005)

Before he was Shane Fontayne, Mick Barakan recorded and toured with Byzantium, made up of a group of older school friends.  Byzantium recorded three albums and made an appearance on the John Peele show on April 16, 1974.

Jerry Browning is a mega-music fan who runs The Witchseason Blog where he offers out of print vinyl for free download.  (HE ONLY OFFERS OUT OF PRINT MUSIC.)  Jerry has his own website and also a Myspace.

He has offered the three Byzantium albums for download:  

Blog Entry:  Byzantium Downloads - March 11, 2008 (scroll down a bit)

Download:  Byzantium

Download:  Seasons Changing

Download:  Live and Studio  (This is my favorite one.  I’m mightily impressed that Jerry has this original on vinyl because it was privately pressed by the band, and I believe copies are quite rare.)

Also, visit the Byzantium entry at ProgArchives and Byzantium’s Official Myspace.

LONE JUSTICE (1984-1987) – Maria Mckee, Shane Fontayne, Greg Sutton, Rudy Richman, and Bruce Brody.  The last show Lone Justice ever did was during its tour supporting U2 in Paris (1987), where Maria and Shane joined the band for a cover of Sweet Jane.  (No, there’s no video for that here.  I wish!  To see a photo of the performance, visit Shane's bio (the '80s).


Shelter (official music video)






Shelter (live)






(Embedding Disabled)
I Found Love



I Found Love (Alternate)





Workin' Late






Wheels






You Are The Light  (Shaky, handheld video, but that beautiful voice shines through!)





Interesting Interview with Maria McKee:  OsloTV (May 15, 2007).  She talks about her “two careers” and promotes her latest album, Late December:



*************************************************

MERCHANTS OF VENUS (1990-1992) - Shane Fontayne, Brett Cartwright, Dennis McDermott.  They only released one album, but this guy really, really, really liked it:  

The Gretsch Pages

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (1992-1993) – Shane toured extensively with Bruce during the time he took a break from the E Street Band.  Bruce later asked Shane to record with him; sadly, that project has never been released.  The only official releases on which Shane appears are the Bruce Springsteen Complete Anthology 1978-2000 and
Bruce Springsteen – MTV Unplugged


Interview with Bruce Springsteen:
"Q" Magazine, August 1992 (David Hepworth)


(Embedding disabled)
Man’s Job – Official (1992)

(Embedding disabled)
Leap of Faith – Official (1992)

Click here for the other Official Bruce Springsteen Youtubes


Soul Driver – (Un)plugged outtake 1992




Bruce Springsteen – Leap of Faith (1992)




Bruce Springsteen - I Wish I Were Blind 1992




Open All Night – New Jersey (7/30/92)




Born in the USA – Barcelona (7/3/92)




Cross My Heart – New York (11/10/92)




Hungry Heart – Verona, 4/11/93




Working on the Highway – Verona, 4/11/93



Glory Days – Verona, 4/11/93




My Beautiful Reward – Verona, 4/11/93



Rockin’ All Over the World – Verona, 4/11/93




Better Days – Madrid (5/5/93)




Sound check – Santiago de Compostela (Spain) (5/9/93)




Lucky Town – Santiago de Compostela (Spain) (5/9/93)




Atlantic City – Santiago de Compostela (Spain) (5/9/93)




Better Days – Milton Keynes (England) (5/22/93)




Viva Las Vegas – Milton Keynes (England) (5/22/93)



Lucky Town – Stockholm (5/28/93)



Leap of Faith – Stockholm (5/28/93)




Born to Run – Stockholm (5/28/93)



This Hard Land – Stockholm (5/28/93)




Adam Raised a Cain – Stockholm (5/28/93)



Thunder Road  – Stockholm (5/28/93)




Seeds  – Stockholm (5/28/93)




Rockin' All Over the World – Stockholm (5/28/93)

well done for starting this at last  

More where that came from.  Stay tuned!     

JOHN WAITE – (1997-2004) Shane played on John’s albums Temple Bar, When You Were Mine, The Hard Way and Figure in a Landscape.

John Waite – When You Were Mine (1997)





Fan Narrative:  Online Fans Meet John Waite (July 17, 1999).  There is a nice picture of Shane's autograph.  FYI the autograph says "Shane F.B."  The "F" is (creatively) backwards; the "B" stands for Barakan.  


******************************************************************

Shane at Kulak’s Woodshed in 2002 – There’s Only Room for Me.  From Shane's album, What Nature Intended (click for samples).



About Kulak’s Woodshed:  This is a unique Los Angeles venue where emerging artists can play their music and have it webcast to anyone who wishes to tune in, as well as accommodating a small audience.  None of the artists is paid, and the operation is run with the help of voluntary donations.

************************************

Lyrics for You Know Better (Unconfirmed title)
KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic – June 11, 2003.  This song is only on the audio version.  (This, as well as other links, are on Shane’s Media page.  A couple of the links are dead, but the others are worth checking out.)  I apologize to Shane for any mistakes in this, or any other, transcription:

You know better
I know you know better
You know better
Than to leave me hanging out to dry

You know better
I know you know better
You know better
That I’m hurting somewhere down inside

You disappear
With you my mind
I lose all sense of me and I can’t find
A single thread to sew the ties that bind me up
Tie me down
This ship runs aground

You know better
I know you know better
You know better
Than to leave me hanging out to dry


You know better
I know you know better
You know better
That I’m hurting somewhere down inside

I’m crashing hard like broken glass
I’m tearing off the scars that heal the past
I’m tasting something flowing thick and fresh
It’s warm but it seems
It’s all just a dream

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light
O say can you see by the dawn’s early light

Yeah it’s all down to me
No one else sets me free

You know better
I know you know better
You know better
Than to leave me hanging out to dry

You know better
I know you know better
You know better
That I’m hurting somewhere down inside

STING (2005):  I’ll start with Chris Botti.  Shane has played on Chris Botti’s albums since Chris’s solo debut, First Wish.  In 2004, Shane Fontayne accompanied Chris Botti as part of the opening act for Sting’s North American Sacred Love tour.  (Read Shane’s narrative of his tour with Chris Botti and Sting.)  (Shane appears on the PBS special, Chris Botti:  Live DVD.)  

Shane was later asked to join Sting on the U.S. leg of his Broken Music tour in 2005.  Click here to read Shane’s weblog of his tour experiences.

From StingVT:


Sting Broken Music Tour 2 (Rehearsals)





Sting Broken Music Tour 6





A Night at the Roxy (3/28/05)





Next to You (TV appearance, 5/13/05)





Sting's Soundcheck, Cleveland - April 22, 2005





Fairfax, Virginia, 4/27/05 (Synchronicity II)





The Roxy (3/28/05) (Invisible Sun; very shaky)






AOL Music Sessions – 05/2005 (Please bear with the commercials.)

Demolition Man

Message In a Bottle

Spirits In The Material World

Behind the Scenes at AOL Sessions

******************************************

Phil Soussan and Shane at Kulak’s (2007).  The song Friend By My Side is taken from Phil Soussan's album, Vibrate.

MARC COHN (1997 to present).  (FYI:  Marc is best known for his 1991 hit, Walking in Memphis.)  Warning:  I am about to gush.  IMHO Marc Cohn and Shane Fontayne are the perfect musical pair (besides ANOTHER musical pair, haha):  Marc’s hard-driving, heartfelt, savory style is tempered (enhanced, maybe?) by Shane’s understated elegance.  Better still, they are also friends.  Shane has been touring with Marc since 1997 and played on Marc’s 2007 release, Join the Parade (JTP).  I have had the privilege of seeing them twice during the Join the Parade Tour, and I would more than gladly do so again!

Here’s  a little history about JTP.  Before JTP, Marc’s last official album release had been Burning the Daze (1998).  Although Marc had been touring regularly over the years, when it came to new material, he was having rather a dry spell.  This came to a shocking end in August of 2005, when the band were returning to their hotel after a show in Denver, Colorado.  They were confronted by an armed man who, in an attempt to carjack them, shot into the vehicle, striking Marc in the head.  Miraculously, the bullet lodged in a bit of soft tissue between his eye and his skull, and surgeons were able to remove it.  Marc never lost consciousness.  Click here for Shane’s retrospective of the day of the shooting.  While Marc recovered, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.  The scenes of destruction, coupled with his recovery from his own traumatic ordeal, seemed to open the floodgates for his songwriting.  As he stated in this interview:

“I got home a couple of days after being shot,” said Cohn. “And then Hurricane Katrina hit a few weeks later. I'm in the middle of my own crisis, and now I'm watching all these haunting images on television of thousands of people suffering through a far more horrific event. And then something I never could have predicted happened. It was like my song-writing receiver got flipped into the on position. Everywhere I turned, in conversations I overheard, even in get-well emails I was receiving, song ideas started coming. For several weeks, I'd be working on 2-3 songs simultaneously. And these songs weren't polite about their sudden presence either; they insisted on being written.”

So without further ado, here are some clips from the Join the Parade Tour:

Marc Cohn videos from Hopper’s Music:


"One Safe Place" Highline Ballroom NYC Nov '07






"29 Ways" Highline Ballroom NYC Nov '07






"The Calling" Highline Ballroom NYC Nov '07






"Walking in Memphis" - McGlohan Theater (Charlotte, North Carolina), 1/17/08







"Paper Walls" Feb '08 in NJ




Marc Cohn – Live Out the String (TV appearance, 01/2008)

Shane at Kulak’s Woodshed.  Shane performed and hosted the evening, presenting several other artists, including his son, Shane, on March 21, 2008:

The Lightning and the Thunder



I stayed awake all night to see you
Then you walked into my dreams
I don’t know who you are
But I’ve a clue
There’s something familiar that
Makes me wonder
It’s in the lightning and the thunder

I can’t eat
I can’t sleep
I’m still paralyzed
And I can’t move my feet

Incinerate these mind vacations
I’m gazing in a crystal ball
I watch the time fly by
I’m watching with a sigh
And then I wave bye-bye
Forevermore
Times in this life when
There’s something bigger comes in
It’s only right then
You start to figure what isn’t
Then what might have been
But there’s no room for regret
And the feeling
Is that
You can’t eat
You can’t sleep
You’re still paralyzed and somehow incomplete


Do do do do do do do . . .
(repeat 3-4x)

A semi-waking dream
Where things ain’t what they seem
That’s about above below
And all things in between
If time will set us free
To be or not to be

I stayed awake all night to see you
I stayed awake all night
I stayed awake all night to see you
Then you walked into my dreams
I don’t know who you are
But I’ve a clue
There’s something familiar that
Makes me wonder
It’s in the lightning and the thunder
It’s in the lightning and the thunder




Stay High (unconfirmed title)



You gotta get up in the morning
Get yourself down to the table
It’s time to make good on the promises
You been making to yourself
Seize the beauty in the new day
Like you never tasted nothing else

You don’t know whatever the future’s gonna bring you
Nothing that’s out of this moment really matters anyway
Hear the sermon in the sunshine
Heed the prayer inside the rain

Stay high
Stay high
Stay high

You son-of-a-gun you plan to shoot this mother down
Well you don’t wanna put your mind anyplace that you don’t wanna see
Que será será you say
What will be will be will be

Stay high
Stay high
Stay high

The simple suppositions fall
The paint is peeling from the walls
The justice in these hallowed halls
Not serving us anymore
You believed in a hometown dream
Parades and [prompted] limousines
Well homecoming just ain’t what it used to be
Ain’t what it used to be

An ancient fallen civilization
Make it all the more important to be truthful to your kin
So come on do yourself a favor
You can do without but not within

Stay high
Come on brother
Stay high
Stay high

Come on brother
Come on sister
Stay high
Stay high
Stay high




Marlene





Raised on ‘45s



I’m lost in earth
And I’m lost in space
Dazed and confused
About the human race
The billboard of my life reads not for sale
Or is that a vacant lot
With no paper trail?

I woke up this morning
Trouble was on my mind
To the sound of you sleeping
And the rain falling through the blinds
Another day another dollar
Or is it just another day?
Turn up the radio
Make me wanna holler
Time to kill
Why would I kill it anyway?

I may be a lover
I may be a fool
I may want nothing better than to quit school
I may be woman
I may be man
Where the past has no future and the present is in my hands
Where the past has no future and the present is in my hands

I was raised on 45’s
The kind with the hole in the middle and a flipside
Not the cold and steely kind
I always loved to listen to those b-sides

Now when life tells you that you pass or fail
When impatience and danger push you to the third rail
Til you’re told back away quietly with your hands in the air
Hey man you lose; Simon didn’t say to; no one said life is fair

Another day another dollar
Or is it just another day?
Turn up the radio
Make me wanna holler
Turn up the radio
Make me wanna holler
Nothing better listening to Marvin Gaye

I want my children
I want my home
I want my woman
I want my freedom
I pay the piper
Of him I ask
That the past have no future and present be in my hands

Do you seek honor?
Do you seek fame?
Do you make a deal with the Devil and speak in his name?

One may have knowledge
And still not understand
May the past have no future and the present be in my hands
May the past have no future and the present be in my hands

May the past have no future and the present . . .
May the past have no future and the present be in my hands




Soft Like Down



Love
Undone
Opened up
Two
Like one
Fill my cup

Here she comes
Soft like down
And I pray
Every day
She will stay
Close to me

How my heart races
When she comes near me
Sweeps me up into her love’s embrace
With a kiss

A fool
May be
Blind to see
But all and everything
Meant to be

She’s heaven
Sent to me
And I pray
Every day
She will stay
Close to me

How my heart races
When she comes near me
Sweeps me up into her love’s embrace
I am helpless to resist
The passion in her touch
The warmth of her
The warmth in her lips
As I slept in her love’s embrace
As I slept in her love’s embrace

Her heavenly
Caress
With a kiss


Love
Undone
Two like one

Here she comes
Here she comes
Soft like down

Love undone
Opened up
Two
Like one
Fill my cup

Here she comes
Soft like down
And I pray
Every day
She will stay
Close to me

How my heart races
When she comes near me
Sweeps me up into her love’s embrace
With a kiss

A fool
May be
Blind to see
But all and everything
Meant to be

She’s heaven
Sent to me
And I pray
Every day
She will stay
Close to me

How my heart races
When she comes near me
Sweeps me up into her love’s embrace
I am helpless to resist
The passion in her touch
The warmth of her
The warmth in her lips
As I slept in her love’s embrace
As I slept in her love’s embrace

Her heavenly
Caress
With a kiss

Love
Undone
Two like one

Here she comes
Here she comes
Soft like down