For musician John Sheldon of Amherst, it all began when his childhood pal James Taylor sold him a red electric guitar. The year was 1965 and Sheldon was 14 years old. Many years have passed, but that red guitar continues to have a big influence on the guitarist’s life and career.
Sheldon has developed a performance piece called “The Red Guitar” that blends monologue and music as he traces his musical journey, one which dates back to when he learned to play that candy apple red Fender guitar.
Sheldon is a long-time staple on the local music scene known for his work as a solo artist as well as the leader of bands like Blue Streak. “The Red Guitar,” which he debuted at the Double Take Festival in Greenfield in October of 2013, is full of humor, touching stories and plenty of his brilliant guitar work.
The stories Sheldon shares in “The Red Guitar” are fascinating ones that include his friendship with Taylor, his stint as a guitarist for Van Morrison and a chance encounter with Jimi Hendrix. And through the telling of his personal story, the audience also gains insight into the history of rock ’n’ roll and the turbulent times in which Sheldon grew up.
Serious Play, a theater ensemble from Northampton, will present “The Red Guitar: Return from the Fringe” Friday at 8 p.m. at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls.
Sheldon has performed the show in Cambridge, upstate New York and throughout the Pioneer Valley, including two sold out shows at the Arts Block in Greenfield in 2014. This summer he traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, to perform “The Red Guitar” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which featured more than 3,300 shows in a three-week period. Sheldon performed “The Red Guitar” 14 times in the span of two weeks.
“It went better than we could have hoped,” he told me. “We had sell-outs every night which was not a given going in. We got an incredible response and some great reviews.”
Did he ever imagine that what started out as a one time performance at the Double Take Festival in Greenfield would take off the way that it has?
“Um, no, I couldn’t have imagined it,” Sheldon said with a laugh. “But I always felt good about it and felt that it was a good forum for me to work in.”
The idea for the show came to him one night when he was driving to a gig at Deja Brew in Wendell.
“I was driving up there to play and got the idea of the red guitar and it just kind of spun out from there,” he said. “It seemed sort of obvious in a way what it was going to be.”
He loosely played around with the concept when performing at Deja Brew, then when Linda McInerney of Old Deerfield Productions (now Eggtooth Productions) approached him about doing something at the 2013 Double Take Festival, Sheldon took this opportunity to shape his idea into a full-blown show. He performed it to a receptive crowd at the Red Door in Greenfield and he knew right away that he was not done with this project.
“After that performance I knew I wanted to do more. I had done the first half of my life and people were asking, ‘What happened next?’ They wanted to hear the rest of it, so I wrote the rest of it and it became a show that was an hour and 40 minutes, and I started performing that,” Sheldon said.
When it came time to bring the show to Edinburgh, the festival required that the piece be only 50 minutes. Sheldon did some editing, and now “The Red Guitar” follows his life story up to the point when he was about 21. This is the version of “The Red Guitar” that he will perform at the Shea Theater. The show is being directed by Sheryl Stoodley of Serious Play.
“At the Shea we are going to do the same show as in Scotland,” he said. “We will perform ‘The Red Guitar’ and then take a break and the second half will be straight music. I’ve got some songs and some instrumental stuff that I want to do.”
Throughout the show, listeners will be treated to snippets of music from musicians like Duane Eddy, Steve Cropper and Mark Knofpler that influenced Sheldon’s career. He will also include selections of his original music.
Sheldon also has experience writing music for various musical productions. He will perform the role of the guitar-playing Autolycus and contribute original music to the production of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale,” which will begin a five-show run at the Arts Block on Sept. 28.
“My character Autolycus is a manipulator, a pickpocket, a thief, a seller of trifles and a musician,” he said. ” And so far this character is really good at doing classic rock, putting Shakespeare words to ‘Stairway to Heaven’ or Simon and Garfunkel or Bowie. It’s a lot of fun.”
But before that project takes off, Sheldon is very excited to bring “The Red Guitar” to the Shea Theater.
“The Shea has great sound so I know it will sound good,” he said. “And for people who have seen it before it will still be interesting because we have done kind of a rewrite. It’s going to be a good evening.”
Advance tickets are $15 and available at: brownpapertickets.com Tickets sold at the door will be cash only. The Shea Theater is on Avenue A. For more information, visit: sheatheater.org or johnsheldon.com
If you are a regular readers of this column, then you already know all about the Root Cellar, the new music club at 10 Fiske Ave. in Greenfield. Even though the club opened in August, the owners are hosting their official opening this weekend. What that means is a weekend of special shows beginning tonight at 9 p.m. when Chilean singer-songwriter Nano Stern and his trio take the stage. Then on Friday it’s “Valley Night,” which will showcase some of the great talent based right here in our own backyard. “Valley Night” will feature the folk/soul sounds of Hillary Chase and her acoustic duo, and will also feature Tawdry, a band that describes its sound as “Ribald-Renaissance-Rock.” Then there is the funky eclectic music of the Headband who are guaranteed to have the dance floor shaking. Also on the lineup is The Addis Revolution, a singer-songwriter who creates his own sound by blending island calypso, soca and reggae beats with American rock, hip-hop and R&B. Headlining the night will be the rockin’ R&B band, The Medicinal Purpose.
The weekend will wrap up on Saturday night with hip-hop/reggae favorites, the Alchemystics. The last time the band played the Root Cellar they packed the place, so advance tickets are recommended for this show. In fact, you can purchase a weekend pass for only $20. To purchase tickets and for more detailed information visit: rootcellarbar.com
Sheryl Hunter is a music writer who lives in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national magazines. You can contact her at: soundslocal@yahoo.com