Andy Shaw

“I’ve loved music all my life but I don’t come from a musical family. As a teenager growing up in Atlanta, GA, I liked to go hiking in the North Georgia mountains and I had friends that were into whitewater canoing and kayaking. We heard rumors of a movie being made up in North Georgia and it turns out some people we knew were providing technical assistance and doing some of the critical stunt work for Deliverance.

I was an impressionable young lad when my older brother took me to see the R-rated film. Needless to say, that movie opened my eyes about a great many things but the thing that stuck with me most was that fiery banjo tune, Duelin’ Banjos. The nightmares had barely begun to fade and I already was trying to work out how to play that song on my new banjo.

At 13, things come quickly and not more than a year or so later, my best friend and I brought down the house at our high school talent review with our rendition of Duelin’ Banjos. The performance bug had bitten and I was determined to keep playing and performing.” ~ Andy Shaw

In the mid-90’s Andy came to California for a job with what later revealed itself to be a bad company. In his spare time he joined a band and a little later, his wife joined up playing bass. He went to a new band, the David Thom Band, after a while and that’s where he’s stuck now since about 2004. Through all this, he’s had a great love of teaching, picking up a Ph.D. in Microbiology along the way, and it seemed natural to take up music instruction and teach the banjo. Andy says it has been a very personally rewarding pursuit. “I do love to see someone have that “ah hah” moment when something just clicks into place.”