But things are calming a bit, so here is the LOW DOWN:

1) Fred Shafer & the Business will be announcing NEW SHOWS in the next few weeks!  Justin, Hubert, Phil, KG & I are EXTREMELY excited about rocking out for you guys!

2) RESISTOR is still available HERE, iTunes and everywhere else you find music…so please keep spreading the word

3) I’ve reunited with my other band, Klear, for a series of shows this summer and a new EP!  It’s a bit different from my solo material…but a ton of fun!  Check it out at www.reverbnation.com/klear

4) Starting a new PLEDGEMUSIC campaign…so stay tuned and keep an eye out kiddos!

Thank you all for the love and support!  More news coming!!!!

Fred

This Fall has been NUTS!!!  More changes than an Lady Gaga show!  “Big News” on the horizon, but also some bad…

So here is the deal, we had to “reschedule” some shows…(plugging ears for the loud yelling).  Believe me, it was the last thing I wanted to do, but it was out of my hands.  I am sorry to everyone who bought tickets and were looking forward to the shows, “sometimes what happens to the feet effects the hands”.

- The dates at Fredshafer.com are correct and we will be posting NEW, CONFIRMED dates in the coming weeks.

- “Resistor” is now available in stores.

- A new BLOG will be up tomorrow.

- I CAN’T WAIT to make up these shows !!!

Thanks so much guys!!!  Enjoy Columbus Day!

Fred

First things first, New York is VERY different from the West!  I can still remember flying in and seeing farmland and fields, lakes and rivers…the deer!?!  The change in scenery proved to be only the first of many culture shocks we had those first few years.

We started off living in our relative’s basements, then moved into our first apartments in WNY.  Despite the fact my mother was a teacher (graduated in the top 3% of the nation in college.  Now is probably not the time to discuss the appalling way we treat our educators both financially and professionally, but we do.), times were tough and we had to rely on welfare, food stamps and church donations & clergy.  Sister Helen of St. John’s in Lockport, NY would bring bags of food by every week…ironic because we would bring in cans like the rest of the kids for food drives, but then we would see some of those same cans later that week in our own kitchen.  But it was exactly those times which forged my opinions on social responsibility.  Here we were, poor and hungry…yet my mother still taught us to give of what little we had to try and help those who were even less fortunate than us.        *** Social programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Food Stamps and HEAP all played a central role in our opportunity to SURVIVE.  Not succeed, not be comfortable, but survive.  The Goodwill, Child Care Tax Credit, Low Income Tax Credit… all programs/assistance designed to help those who try, but are unable to help themselves.(Stepping off political soap-box now) ***

So during this time, I was also navigating through the all too familiar “adolescent bullying” faze.  Yet again in my young life I was confronted by the unique dichotomy of human beings… capability to bring happiness & compassion or to bring sadness & pain.    But it’s not like I made it tough for them either.  I was short & skinny with thick glasses, a lisp (until 6th grade), Goodwill cloths and I loved music (chorus & band).  I was a walking punchline.  Even Napoleon Dynamite would have teased me.  But it was also during this time I began singing and performing in public…odd, I know.  By 10 yrs old I was featured in a local high school’s version of “Music Man”, playing Winthrop (more irony, a child with social anxiety and a lisp).  The experience lit a fire in me, leading to more high school productions, local & regional theater and a renewed focus in chorus and band.  It saved me.  These forays into the “make believe” aloud me to escape from my own turbulent life and feel an acceptance and compassion I would look to later in life.

Still not yet in my teens, I also started Boy Scouts.  I know, I know… cheesy uniforms, bad PR rap etc.  But the Boy Scouts were a HUGE part of my youth for a bunch of reasons.  I was the only boy in a house with my mother and 2 sisters, my grandfather (whom I will get to soon) wasn’t in good enough health to be “too active”, so these were the only guys I got to be around.  Though the experience wasn’t perfect, I did learn how to be part of a team, the meaning of the words “Honor” and “Duty”, how to survive in the woods on almost nothing.

Also during this time, we stayed with my grandparents A LOT!   Everyday after school we walked to their house (back when kids used to walk), ate dinner and did homework.  My grandfather taught me to play catch, to play cards and harass my grandmother.  He told me stories about the WWII, playing football (which though I repeated tried, couldn’t do because of my lack of kidney) and his kindergarten class which he could remember every student.  NUTS!  I can’t even remember ANY class, let alone kindergarten.  (I miss them both so much now.  What I wouldn’t do to hear his voice again, smell her cooking in the kitchen when we came home, watch John Wayne re-runs or hear him yell from the living room, “Mother, leave the boy alone”.)    I am so happy she never did.

Looking back now, my fortunes seem so unbalanced.  We were in complete poverty with a single mother working all of the time to raise her 3 children, yet we had such a strong family bond.  We were connected.  That bond kept me away from the drugs, crime and gangs that the other kids in our financial situation turned to.  The people in my life worked so hard, DESPITE ME, to instill values, responsibility and respect in me.  We didn’t have nice shoes or clothes, but we did HAVE shoes and clothes.  We didn’t have expensive food, but we didn’t go hungry.  They always reminded me that there were people with less and it was MY responsibility to help them. We took care of each other.  I’ve never been arrested or accused of a crime, never vandalized or hurt someone and never been in much trouble.  Looking back now, even with all the trauma, I wouldn’t have wanted to grown up any other way.

Throughout all of these experiences, there was music EVERYWHERE!  My chorus friends introduced me to The Temptations, Al Green, Bill Withers and Opera.  The guys in Boy Scouts showed me Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam and Metallica.  The college kids in the community theater I participated in played Phish, Moxy Frufus and The Band and uncles played nothing but George Strait, Garth Brooks and Hank Williams.  It was also during this time that I discovered my mothers record collection of the Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nero, Bob Dylan and Santana.  But some of these musicians and records though were still “peripheral” to me.  Some were impersonal or foreign.  I felt the pleading in Al Green, the earnest passion of Otis Redding, the focused frustration of Soundgarden, but it would take me until I was 15 before I became invigorated by the music.  Before it influenced my life.

So 12 years down, 17 to go!  Another big move, family breaks up…and I discover my life’s work.

to be continued…

I was born in Las Vegas in the early 1980’s, the first born son to a teacher from Western New York and a carpet cleaner from Texas.  I was born with Polycystic Kidney Disease, a disease in which the body creates cysts throughout the body.  My disease started “in utero”, where the cysts spread and engulfed my left kidney and began to work on the rest.  So the first days of my life were spent being tested and shipped around (the details are fuzzy because I was a week old after all), but at 12 days old I underwent emergency surgery in San Diego to remove my left Kidney and it’s “hangers on”.   Evidently the doctors and priests had no idea of the determination, will power or just general stubbornness  they were dealing with… because they gave me my Last Rights (a catholic ceremony preparing the soul for death and the entrance to heaven) and told my mother it was basically a “crap shoot”.   Well as far as I know I pulled through, though my sisters would later try repeatedly to disown me and question the validity of my heritage…my own version of “Birthers”.  hahaha   So right away, from the start, “amazing”.  Not me amazing, but the course of events.

After the fireworks of my entrance, the next few years can be followed by this abbreviated time-line:

- Moved to Texas

- Moved back to Las Vegas for the equally dramatic birth of my sister Amy.  Grandparents in Vegas too.

- Crazy Days

- Moved back to Texas

- Moved back to Las Vegas.  Grandparents still there.

- More Crazy Days

- Relatively normal birth of my youngest sister Mary. Grandparents, “check”.

- Even MORE  Crazy Days

Then “the break”.  Because I desire to keep the details of the “the break” private at this time,  I will sum it up best I can…

Alcohol + Tempers + Chemical Imbalances + Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome + Infidelity + Children = Abuse.   Following the divorce and year of harassment, Mom & 3 kids move to New York.  I never saw my father again after that day.

That’s how the first chapter ended.  The 4 of us followed my grandparents back to New York, where they are from and my mother was raised.  This set the stage for EVERYTHING that happened next…Instead of a chaotic yet financially stable upbringing in Las Vegas & Texas, we ended up extremely poor but happy in WNY being raised by my mom & grandparents.   My values, environment, opinions, beliefs, self-esteem, self-awareness and education had all been dramatically altered and set me on a significantly different path.  The value system, work ethic and introspection I use everyday in my music and business are ALL ROOTED in the events that happened during the first 10 years of my life.  They do not define me, but they do lay the ground work for the choices I made later.   It’s so nutty to look back and see how it all unfolded.

…to be continued

The Rutledge show on Friday was just special.  Autumn McEntire joined me on stage to sing BGV’s, and with Hubert Payne (drums), Paul Yates (bass), KG (keys) and as always Justin Davenport (guitar)… it felt amazing.  Everyone played great, everyone in the audience was great and we ended up with 2 standing ovations!   AWESOME!!!!

Then it was back to the closest thing I have to a homecoming show, Findlay, OH!  First Autumn and I played a packed Coffee Amici and showcased some songs we’ve written together,  some we sing together and others that we just like.  Everyone at Amici made the long drive WELL WORTH  it!

Lastly, the 3 hour MEGA SHOW at Nino’s!   Whoo Hoo!  The whole gang joined me on stage and we got to throw down!  25 songs, duets and harmonies, solos and some good ole Rock n’ Soul flowed from the stage…and that was just the start.  AFTER the show, it turned into Dancing with the Stars with Mikey and Kelly (I sat that one out) and then the Bon Fire in the woods.  Amazing, Fun and Unforgettable!

So what’s next?  How about

- Acoustic shows in September

- SHOWCASE in NYC on October 6th (very big deal!!!)

- Band Tour Dates from Oct 15th – Nov 13th

- NEW Merch designs coming soon

- NEW Video Player here at www.fredshafer.com coming soon too

How bout that?

September dates in New England: CHECK

October/November dates in Mid-West: CHECK

West Coast, East Coast, Texas, Florida…: still working on it.

- I PROMISE, I am doing everything I can to try and  book some shows EVERYWHERE y’all have asked me too…so thanks for the patience!

Going to add some updates to the FAN CLUB, Video section and more this month at Fredshafer.com, so stay tuned!

Thanks y’all!

Fred

Please visit http://eventful.com/competitions/kiss2010/cincinnati and use zip code 45220 to vote for me in Cincinnati! (you don’t have to live there)

Then check out http://eventful.com/competitions/kiss2010/dariencenter and use 14201 to vote for Klear.

Thanks so much!  And check out the NEW TOUR DATES listed…see you at the show!

Cheers,

Fred

www.eventful.com/competitions/kiss2010/cincinnati/

And DEMAND it…thats it!  Please send out and help me to open for one of my favorite bands of all time!

I will also be updating some NEW tour dates soon, so stay tuned.

Cheers,

Fred