Shawn Kern
Drums, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica, Lead and Harmony Vocals.
Co-founder of this insanely fun and talented group.
Shawn began music at the ripe old age of 10 playing trumpet in elementary
school and continuing through high school and college. As a junior high student
in St. Louis, Mo. he and his older brother Dave discovered Rock and Roll through
Deep Purple, Rick Derringer, Jimi Hendrix, The Raspberries, Cream magazine and Hit Parader (not to mention Don Kirschners Rock Concert and The Midnight Special.)
By this time Shawn (idiot that he is) gave up the ease of carrying a 4 lb. trumpet case for a van full of 1700 lbs. of drums, hardware and cymbals.
The first real band experience was a KISS tribute show freshman year at Mariemont H.S. in Cincinnati. (of course they took first place....sweeeet)
From there the fundamentals kicked in, marching and concert band, pep band set drummer, jazz band and more. This was about the time He discovered Neil Peart and Rush and Bill Bruford and Yes. Now began a 5 hour a day regimen of learning every song on the albums -Farewell to Kings-Hemispheres-Permanent Waves-2112-Fragile-Tormato-YesSongs-Moving Pictures-Blizzard Of OZ-and so on and so on and so on. By the time he graduated they were playing all the school beer bashes and even a couple paying gigs on fountain square downtown Cincy and a few youth organization events.
Then it was off to college......no parental restraints, no moral or ethical guidelines, an 18 year old legal drinking age...well you get the picture. Formed a band within the Frat house and played the first paying gigs of adulthood at Wittenberg University-Springfield,Oh.
After Flunking out of Witt. Shawn moved back to Cincinnati to re-evaluate lifes goals and immediately became a bartender! As well as finally getting his Bachelor's degree from Miami University, Oxford.
This was about the time he played his first paying solo acoustic guitar gigs, got into a pro band called "fingers" with brother Dave, which even with as gay a name as that was, managed to open for "Shooting Star" twice to 2000 plus capacity crowds at Bogarts.
Fast forward past a failed marriage, a 10 year bout with drugs and alchol, and too many heavy metal and glam bands to mention.
By 1996 Shawn was on the mend, clean, focused and ready to dive into the Indy music
scene, first accomplishing this by discovering his true business virtue, Instrument retail. As a sales clerk at Music Go Round he met Blake who in turn introduced him to Brian, Carlos, Pam Lee of "Drama Queen" and the "Amazon Boys" were born again.
This began the start of 10 solid years of 4 and 5 night a week, every week, gigs that completely changed the way he looked at music as a profession, sometimes playing with as many as 5 projects at a time. Bands Included Cast of 1000's, Jaded, Tranzient,JD Marshall, Black VooDoo with Benito,The Stepchildren, The Swamp Angels, HalfWired, The Don Stuck Band, DYRRJ with Rockin' Ralph, and many more.
A talented Percussionist and Singer Shawn is one of the driving forces behind the Swamp Angels!
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