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#ArtistAtHome with Shaun Verreault

#ArtistAtHome is a series of portraits and profiles of local artists by Christopher Edmonstone. Read all about it and see the archive HERE .

#ArtistAtHome is a series of portraits and profiles of local artists by Christopher Edmonstone. Read all about it and see the archive HERE.

It is an honour to have Shaun Verreault be a part of my #Artistathome series! He is truly a mesmerizing guitarist and if you don't him, you will know his band Wide Mouth Mason who have toured with the likes of The Rolling Stones, George Thorogood, ACDC and The Guess Who. There has never been a time seeing him play that he hasn't melted my face off with his guitar shredding.

Growing up in Saskatoon, Shaun formed Wide Mouth Mason in 1995 with a childhood friend playing covers in the local area, to cut their teeth while working on their original tunes.

The band recorded at Greenhouse Studios after a West Coast tour, which resulted in them releasing an independent album. After that, things really took off for the group. Within a year they signed a record deal and their self-titled album was on its way to Gold in Canada.

A chance meeting with Claude Nobs (founder of the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland) led Nobs to invite the newly signed young band to play the festival. Shaun said they spent days watching their heroes and jamming with musicians from all over the world. Their performance at the festival (which Shaun credits as being one of the most memorable he has ever played) was sandwiched between an opera singer doing a tribute to Freddy Mercury (who had lived in Montreux part time) and an Italian rock star who reminded him of Roch Voisine. Shaun states "We were pretty terrified at first, but the crowd responded amazingly and Claude (the funky Claude from Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water) joined us on harmonica for the encore!"

 Shaun Verrault rocking the three finger slide.Shaun Verrault rocking the three finger slide.

The next day they were driving around Switzerland, and while they were having a fondue in Gruyere they learned that both Van Morrison and Ray Charles had heard a recording of their performance the night before and Van wanted Shaun to sit in with him that night! Word was passed from Ray Charles himself to tell Shaun "That boy can play guitar !" Pretty amazing compliments from a couple of legendary performers.

During my visit we chatted about what he thought were keys to success in music, and his reply could rightfully be applied to anything - it was 'just be awesome, be so undeniably good that people cannot but help be drawn to you'.

Shaun continues to push technical boundaries with his utilization of 3 slides to play guitar. I do not know of another player that does this but it looks and sounds fantastic. Check out this link where he demonstrates this style - and hang on to your face smile emoticon.

Many thanks to Shaun, his wife Janine and their almost four year old Layla - (that loves it LOUD) for having me in their home.