In Session 1 of The Jamcast with Jack Blades, Ken and Jack discuss his transition from a guitar player to a bass player at an early age. You'll hear how he and Tommy Shaw hooked-up in 1989 in the Damn Yankees, and how they wrote “High Enough” in Tommy's New York apartment in about 30 minutes. Plus you'll hear what Ted Nugent did to tweak the song. 

 

*****************************************************************

Shaw-Blades INFLUENCE is due out on March 6 and is the duo’s first album since their recently re-released 1995 debut, HALLUCINATION.  Like the debut--and unlike their history-carving decades as icons in the more hard-rock minded Styx, Night Ranger and Damn Yankees--the latest release is rooted in acoustic guitar and organic production, harvesting a decade of musical influences into 11 tracks (on which Blades and Shaw played all the music except for drums and the occasional keyboards).  With classics from the ‘60s and ‘70s including the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and Steely Dan’s “Dirty Work,” INFLUENCE offers a track-by-track chronology of the musical era that helped define modern rock.