by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
Shawn Fisher is a young (18) singer/songwriter who has been performing at Freebird shows and other venues for three years. His appealing original songs and energetic performing style have increased his fan base exponentially in the last year. Last Friday night, I caught Shawn live at the Freebird. He opened for John Brandon to a full house of young people, who had come there for Shawn and Brandon. .
As an 18 year old man who grew up listening to a variety of music, he started writing songs at 15 when he focused on the music of pop/punk bands like Weezer, Blink-182, and Less Than Jake. These groups inspired Shawn to write songs from what he was feeling, framed in his original performing style.
So it began. Shawn set out to write about his life experiences, not worrying whether his lyrics rhymed. He also writes songs based on fictional scenarios, like little movies. Later, Shawn got into the Goo Goo Dolls, Jack Johnson, John Mayer, and Matt Nathanson, who became important influences. Armed with rapidly occurring ideas, Shawn’s creative juices began to flow. Soon he had amassed a repertoire of original songs that went over well with audiences. Positive audience response encouraged Shawn to continue his musical career, adopting an animated style of solo act that was more like a rock presentation than a folk act.
Weaving through the throng of flip-flop wearing chatty young people to take my photographs, I noticed how excited they were over Shawn’s performance. They responded with enthusiastic approval of his songs and his hyper movements on stage. Shawn realizes that his songwriting skill is evolving, and he is not afraid to try new techniques and concepts of applying words to music.
More significantly, Shawn has the natural talent to write catchy, hook heavy songs that are a deep expressions of his creative consciousness, and simultaneously, appeal to diverse audiences, crossing over all age groups. The rhythmic way Shawn delivers his words over his music is intriguing and is somewhat reminiscent of Paul Simon’s offbeat method of composing and performing his songs. It’s a matter of melding the words inside the rhythm, which Shawn does with gusto.
Presently, Shawn has enough material to record a full-length CD. So with strong support from his parents and girlfriend, Shawn is pressing ahead with his plans to keep on writing songs and performing them at showcase gigs and other events. His album is tentatively called The Definition of A Crush, which should be released sometime next year.
One can preview Shawn’s music on his www.myspace.com/shawnfisher website. These four songs are a representative sample of Shawn’s fiercely original work, which defies comparison. And considering all that has gone before in popular music, that is a major asset. His voice is destinctive and emotionally charged. During Shawn’s Freebird show, he was able to convey his songs to his audience with feeling and kinetic energy. The crowd reciprocated with wild approval. It was the best case scenario for this rising young artist, whose career is just out of the starting gate. What he lacks in road seasoned maturity, he makes up for with his fresh wonderment at his life, which is an open book with only a few pages written.
Shawn also has a full blown website at www.shawnfisher.net where one can peruse his information. Indeed, Shawn has a bright future in music. My only advice would be not to get discouraged and be steadfast in his resolve to move up the music biz mountain.
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