Well, it all started with my cousin Chris when he gave me his Kiss records when i was 4 in 1981... there was also a Police and a Ramones record. Kiss was my world. I also had a Disney disco record, Mother Goose, and John Denver with the Muppets Xmas album. Then as I moved to florida i found that my aunt trashed ALL of my records upon moving there - i was 6. Stuck with nothing but country radio for awhile, I really liked Conway Twitty's "Baby's got her blue jeans"..... (she can't help if she's made that way, it just comes naturally....) But then I got a record player again when Mom and I got a trailer of our own - I was allowed to have the FM movie sountrack... yippie... then bands like Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley crue - all that started happeneing - and i loved Poison... which led me to Pretty Boy Floyd, Faster Pussycat, Love/Hate, L.A. Guns... I also was fond of the Misfits, Minor Threat and 7 seconds at this point... then Nirvana hit... which helped me get into U2 for some reason. U2 has been my favorite band for a long time - until like a couple of years ago - the 90's was a great decade for that band artisticly... yeah U2 - and then Green Day hit the scene - which led to Op IV, Rancid, Fifteen, and gettin' into indie/locallly based music.... and while college freshman were pumpin' their woman power fist to Alanis and The Spice Girls, I found Ani Difranco's "Not A Pretty Girl" on a CMJ compilation - listed right after a Dr. Dre song.... "Not a Pretty Girl" sent me on a path to folksongerdom... my most recent favorite is Bright Eyes.
Sean began playing guitar and writing songs at 13. A year later he landed his first gig at an old rundown Daytona Beach, Florida gas station turned biker-bar dubbed Charlie's. After receiving the approval of a presumably tough audience, Sean began to realize that being a performing songwriter was his destiny. Sean performed in a number of outfits throughout high school and college. Entering his 20's in fall of 1997, he went solo and found himself in more coffeehouses than classrooms and left college to deliver pizza and perform as much as possible. Within six months he garnered a diverse following in central Florida. By the end of 1997, he moved to Buffalo, New York, where he would test his material on unfamiliar audiences. By the summer of 1998 he was included on a compilation CD sponsored by Stimulance Coffeehouse. At the opening of the disc, you hear the host announce Sean as Buffalo's finest import from Florida. Sean embarked on his first DIY east caoast tour (in tandem with fellow folkie Kim Rheul) that same summer.
Sean performed his song "... and I failed social studies that year." at the 1999 International Conference on Non-Violence, which was held at the Doctor Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The song is a narration of childhood experiences growing up in a predominantly racist community in Lake County, Florida. Personal experience is the primary source for subject matter in Sean's work. When he's not lamenting his heartbreak, or the heartbreak he has created, his voice is dedicated to explicating socio-political issues that are constantly perverted or altogether ignored by mainstream media.
The 21st-century found Sean writing and performing consistently. He began playing cover gigs in local venues such as Meehan's, Spondivits, and 37 Main. These frequent 3-hour shows helped refine Sean's performance technique, while providing him with an opportunity to expose his original material to larger audiences. He earned a second place nod for Male Musician in Southern Voice's Best of 2005 issue. The self-described 'folk-boy' has competed in Smith's Old Bar's 'Open Mic Madness' every year since it's inception, and has been a frequent finalist in the Eddie's Attic Monday Night Open Mic Competition.
In 2007, Sean has found a renewed sense of purpose as a performer and writer. This renewed sense not only involves having the time of his life performing as much as possible, in as many places as possible, but also truly being a part of what will help mankind enter into an elevated state of awareness of what it means to be human. Now that's purpose!
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4 jencray.com
I love the icon picture! Where was it taken? It sure would be cool to hang out sometime..we're actually playing Texas Hold'em with our neighbors tonight...just thinking aboutcha!
Shelly Ryan is an ordinary mother waiting for her son to arrive home from school. She is unaware she's been lulled into a trance-like state from her day of running mundane errands.
She hears the door slam and is greeted by a boy she doesn't recognize. Why is he dressed so funny? Why is the room black and white? And why is SHE standing there in an apron with a plate of cookies in her hand?
(cue hauntingly familiar music...) Because she's entered the:
i just got the new ani cd for review, and "emancipated minor" was just drumming up memories of back in the day. hope you're doing well. (ps--yes, of course, it's a great disc)
Sean!!! You and Dan ROCK! Thanks so much for coming to the Eddie's show on Saturday - it meant the world to me! Having so many friendly faces in the crowd really calmed my nerve. Cheers!
Well, it all started with my cousin Chris when he gave me his Kiss records when i was 4 in 1981... there was also a Police and a Ramones record. Kiss was my world. I also had a Disney disco record, Mother Goose, and John Denver with the Muppets Xmas album. Then as I moved to florida i found that my aunt trashed ALL of my records upon moving there - i was 6. Stuck with nothing but country radio for awhile, I really liked Conway Twitty's "Baby's got her blue jeans"..... (she can't help if she's made that way, it just comes naturally....) But then I got a record player again when Mom and I got a trailer of our own - I was allowed to have the FM movie sountrack... yippie... then bands like Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley crue - all that started happeneing - and i loved Poison... which led me to Pretty Boy Floyd, Faster Pussycat, Love/Hate, L.A. Guns... I also was fond of the Misfits, Minor Threat and 7 seconds at this point... then Nirvana hit... which helped me get into U2 for some reason. U2 has been my favorite band for a long time - until like a couple of years ago - the 90's was a great decade for that band artisticly... yeah U2 - and then Green Day hit the scene - which led to Op IV, Rancid, Fifteen, and gettin' into indie/locallly based music.... and while college freshman were pumpin' their woman power fist to Alanis and The Spice Girls, I found Ani Difranco's "Not A Pretty Girl" on a CMJ compilation - listed right after a Dr. Dre song.... "Not a Pretty Girl" sent me on a path to folksongerdom... my most recent favorite is Bright Eyes.
