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Play "Water Return" on any Ecast digital jukebox!
"Water Return" available at the following Northern California locations:
San Francisco: Open Mind on Divis., Amoeba on Haight, and Streetlight on Market.
Santa Rosa: Last Record Store on Mendocino Ave.
Ukiah: Dig! Music on N. State
Lakeport: Bandbox Music on 11th
Ian Shaul's music is a rich bastardization of Country, Blues, Rock, and Bluegrass that hails from Lake County, a rural area of Northern California best-known for its pear orchards and methamphetamine production. The rural and destitute surroundings have shaped Ian's songwriting and performing styles into something unique, and uniquely Northern Californian.
Now based in San Francisco, Ian Shaul has become known for his energetic performances and truly unique playing style, having taken his music to some of the city's premier venues, including 12 Galaxies, Hotel Utah, Amnesia, Make-Out Room, Edinburgh Castle, Studio Z, Rite Spot, Bender's, Odeon, and Grant and Green, to name a few. He can also be found as a sideman, filling in on guitar, lap steel, banjo and dobro for local acts Pirate Radio and Karpov's 2006 album, Soliloquy.
A follow-up to the widely circulated CDR "Pie for Hayseeds" (2004) "Water Return" marks Ian Shaul's studio debut. Recorded in the heart of San Francisco at the analog mecca Tiny Telephone and the historic Different Fur, the album was made on a shoestring budget at guerilla speed.
"Singer-songwriter Ian Shaul opened things up with some intense (and fancy) guitar picking, an impressive voice and a cache of folk songs about love lost and all things emo. Ladies, take note--he’s got the Jack Johnson good looks, but Shaul makes Jack Johnson sound like a one-trick pony … wait a second. Oh, and he didn’t wear flip-flops with pants."
--Mark Lore, Arts Editor, "Days of Lore" column, Chico News and Review. 5/31/07
"Water Return is an intriguing record. Shaul has a voice meant for country, but lyrically Water Return is more of a folk record. The guitar strumming is for the most part a combination of both folk and country, with a noticeable bluegrass influence in tracks like "Rest My Soul." On top of all of this, Shaul attempts a cover of Radiohead's "No Surprises" and certainly succeeds in making the song his own.Shaul succeeds in leaving the listener with vivid imagery and fantastic, weepy melodies which ultimately are the guiding force in Water Return."
--Mente Immaculada
Full Article
"Ian Shaul's vocals are soulful and sincere, yet his lyrics never lose the wit that will surely become his signature. At times the songs are so sadly beautiful that I wish to suffer through a break-up, if only to feel them more poignantly."
--Juliana Tringali, Music Editor, Bitch Magazine
"Ian's music is mean for the rowdy crowd, a crowd that isn't afraid to add a hoot and a holler every now and then. It's about as hardcore as a man and his guitar can get.
--Max Fox, Bagdad By the Bay
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"I can't tell if his songs make me happy or if they make me sad. But when I listen to him play, I need a drink. Badly."
--Luc Martin, Alcoholic
"In performances that range from frantic to subdued and visceral, Shaul makes music that's equal parts Gillian Welch and David Rawlings."
--Now Magazine, Toronto
Electronic Press Kit
