WHISKEY
BOB
SHAKER
INFO
whiskey Bob Shaker has been described as:
“A unique a wholly entertaining solo artist, Whiskey Bob Shaker is a master of bar room blues, ballads and blistering loops. Influences include Tom Waits and Elvis Costello but the style is very much his own. Chesterfield based and bringing over twenty years experience, Whiskey Bob works the crowd like a master and always leaves them feeling satisfied.” (Cromford Festival Guide)
“Plays a mean guitar, loops his licks, tickles a cajon and amazes you…”
(Matlock Mercury)
“A little on the sleazy side” (Bakewell Today) !!!!!!
Derbyshire times review of grape and grain
Some songs haunt you and just won’t let go.
They’re like the lingering of a lover’s kiss; the half-remembered perfume from a long-lost liaison.
On his new album, Grape and Grain, Chesterfield troubadour Whiskey Bob Shaker has created music with precisely that ghostly, evocative quality you’ll struggle to exorcise from your mind.
Whiskey Bob, the pseudonym of Rob Laughlin, wears his influences on his sleeve, with three of the ten songs on the album penned by Tom Waits.
But the fact his own material sits so comfortably alongside them is testament to his strength as a songwriter.
Tracks like Fire, with its deceptively simple guitar parts, build powerfully, and his vocals shine through on a capella sections like the opening of Way Down In The Hole.
And on songs like Cold, relating the terrible true tale of the Killamarsh ice tragedy, Bob’s key talent as a story-teller floats to the surface.
Haunting and poetic, you find yourself holding your breath awaiting the awful, inevitable ending.
The whole album aches with longing.
It is the music of the midnight hour, of empty bars and overflowing ashtrays.
It will haunt you.
