Since over 29 years ago, (September 6th, in 1979), when I opened my recording studio, I've been recording bands and solo artists, and writing and producing advertising jingles and music for film, video, etc. I love what I do so much that often, I find myself telling folks that "I can't tell if I'm working or playing!" Actually, this is true, because I enjoy every aspect of what goes into a project...the people, communication, creativity, performance/execution, technical sound engineering, and producing, and general good vibes!

Over the years, I've done many sessions and composed many tunes and other music, utilizing many of the finest talents found in the south Louisiana area, including such fabulous drummers as MIKE BINET, JERRY LEJEUNE, FRANK KINCEL, DOUG BELOTE, KEVIN O'DAY, and RICKY SEBASTIAN, to name a few. In recent years, I've been recording more bands and up and coming solo artists...Modern Jazz Movement, LA Phantoms, Wizard Coyotes, Joe Gaspard, Darryl Whittington to name just a few...and composing many more assorted textures of my own music, some examples of which are available for listening on the Shelton's Music page. I'll be adding several more examples in the next few days.

More recently, I've produced records (CDs) for BRET VIDRINE - "Lonely For Love", and also for JASON HARRINGTON - "Storm On The River", for my company, RIGHT NOTE RECORDS & PUBLISHING, LLC. (Visit our website at: http://www.rightnoterecords.com/)

In college, I studied music theory and composition. Although I've played guitar since I was eight years old, and it's still my "main" instrument, I learned to play several different instruments, in order to be able to write for them. I play about sixteen instruments, or so, in varying degrees of proficiency....guitar, piano, alto sax, marimba/vibes, upright and electric bass, banjo, and percussion, to name a few...and, I sing, too! But when I'm producing, although I can play sax, for instance, I'll usually hire a saxophonist who plays a particular style that's appropriate for the piece I'm working on, because authenticity is a very important part of the sound/image you ultimately want to project.

 

MUSICAL BACKGROUND / ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Style-wise, you'll be able to tell, if you get to know me some, that my spectrum is a wide one, and even now is still expanding. Being that I'm a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, my musical background is diverse...I play several finger-picking styles of guitar, like Bluegrass/Folksy/New-age/Leo Kottke influenced, old-style Blues, etc., and along with these styles, I also play and compose Jazz, Latin, Calypso, Reggae, Rock, Soul, Funk, Second-line, Gospel, Cajun, Zydeco, melodic rhythmic music from African origins and more...

Improvisation/soloing is another one of my loves, and in 1982, I was invited to perform with renowned saxophonist, RICHARD (DICKY) LANDRY, as the first other musician ever to join him in his world famous echo-solo-improvisation concerts, whereby we would jam with each other, chasing each other's parts, and harmonizing together, but also with our own echo, stacking harmonies of echo, as well.....with the echo themes we were creating off the top of our heads constantly fading away, we'd have to simultaneously keep jumping back to those parts again, to recharge their presence in the echo, while we stayed focused on following every new thing the other guy would be playing as well! The echo came from the way we wired an old reel to reel recorder, and when the reel of tape ran out, the echo would stop suddenly...that was when we would just bow to our audience and say "thankyou, goodnight!"

Since that time, I've had the pleasure of playing with some great people, in diverse bands and settings... A Soul/Jazz band called JUSTICE, headed by the incredible keyboardist, JOHN POTIER, who used to play with STEVIE WONDER and IKE & TINA TURNER, and whose father is the late HAROLD POTIER, (a contemporary of BUNK JOHNSON, and LOUIE ARMSTRONG), with Harold accompanying us on his trumpet....a local R&B great, KAT & THE KITTENS...international Reggae artist RAS CLOUD & THE SONS OF SALASSI-I...and Zydeco artist, FERNEST ARCENEAUX with his band, FERNEST & THE THUNDERS...(among others).

In the mid-eighties, I had a small Zydeco record label, called Greybeard Records, Inc., and produced and recorded FERNEST ARCENEAUX AND THE THUNDERS, SAMPY AND THE BAD HABITS, THE SAM BROTHERS FIVE, and ZYDECO BLUES, INC., featuring 'LIL BUCK SENEGAL, on guitar, with distribution in the eastern United States by ROUNDER RECORDS, and in the west, by BAYSIDE, which is the distribution branch of ARHOOLIE RECORD COMPANY, and a small European mail-order company out of North Wales. I was featured in an article in SPIN MAGAZINE at that time, and I'm in some book about the history of Louisiana music, that I can't even remember! Also, a Zydeco record that I produced and recorded for FERNEST AND THE THUNDERS was listed as recommended listening in Playboy Magazine. During the same time-span, the late great CLIFTON CHENNIER recorded what turned out to be his last recording he ever made, with me in my studio. (He was a good friend of mine.) Also, in that time, I recorded records for various other artists, including some of Louisiana's earliest punk bands, such as THE ROCKING SHAPES, and BAS CLAS...(both of these bands made the charts in both Spin and Billboard Magazines multiple times.)

For over ten years, I had an all original world-beat music band called YAYA, which was a seven piece band, including baritone sax, alto sax, and tenor sax, (featuring my son DENNIS (DENNY) SKERRETT (now of MODERN JAZZ MOVEMENT), LAFAYETTE SAUCIER, and DICKY LANDRY in the horn section) and lots of percussion. I created this band to play some of the music I was writing in addition to writing jingles, or music for video, etc.

For the first ten years or so, since the inception of the Festival Internationale de Louisianne, I was honored to host the Festival's closing jam, on the last night of the festival, which took place at Grant Street Dancehall, where I'd invite all of the international musicians onto one stage to play together in one BIG international "jam", which, in the truest sense of the word, is "a spontaneous musical dialogue". We might have thirty musicians, from all over the world, on stage at one time, speaking several different languages, but we'd all speak music, and the result was beautiful, cohesive, interactive, spontaneous, improvisational, and riveting!

Also, for the past over nine years, I've been the host of a beautiful Songwriters gathering each week, in order to support and encourage creativity and originality in music made in and around Lafayette. I'm currently hosting SONGWRITERS NIGHT every Wednesday night (starting at 10pm) at "BISBANO'S CELLAR DOOR", near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette...this event gives me the chance to keep my acoustic music well-honed and fine-tuned, and attracts many of the area's very talented, (and some lesser known songwriters)...Always something new! It is now the longest running Songwriters Night in Lafayette!

Through the years that I've had my recording studio, I've had the chance to meet and get to know some famous musicians, actors, and movie producers. ROBBIE ROBERTSON visited my studio in the 80's, when he was in charge of music for a movie project...he and the movie's producer told me that, for years, they'd been visualizing a certain style of music that came from an unusual blend of musical influences, and that until they met me and heard the music we were doing in my studio, they'd never really been sure that it could be done. So, for quite a while, Robbie was my "coach" and had me putting sessions together, writing music with odd blends of musicians stacking tracks on my grooves to achieve the texture he was looking for...very interesting music resulted, but the movie, unfortunately didn't. I learned a lot from working with Robbie in that way, and I'll always be grateful to him for that.

There are others I've met...DAVID BYRNE, PAUL SIMON, PHILLIP GLASS, LORI ANDERSON, DENNIS QUAID, ELLEN BARKEN, BILLY IDOL, TAJ MAHAL, DAN FOGELBURG (RIP), and many others...and to think I met them all, right here, because I live in Lafayette, Louisiana, where lots of the world's greatest music comes from...We definitely have something very special going on here, and that makes me feel very lucky!

Thankyou for your interest in my music, and for taking the time to get to know a little bit about me. If you'd like to contact me, I'm looking forward to hearing from you! Skerrett Recording Studios phone number is 337-278-8258...feel free to give me a call!

 

Sincerely,

 

Shelton G. Skerrett,

Owner - Skerrett Recording Studios,

President - Right Note Records & Publishing, LLC

 

 

Contact Shelton G. Skerrett