Music Envy: Joe Shields

In honor of Joe’s birthday I’d like to share a gem from the Lies for Annebelle archives.  A demo recording of Lydian Joe and I had in 2001.   Joe comes in at  0:45 seconds with a single string lead part over the pre-chorus. He lets loose a little bit at 1:39 during the chorus turnaround. Joe’s favorite lead in this song comes at 2:06 seconds. 9 years he can still play this line verbatim. Quite strange.

halfwaynorth later recorded a full band version of Lydian for the breakup? album in 2006 without Joe on guitar. The album version goes a little less twangy and a little more poppy but you are listening to its roots.

Very few people know that I’ve been playing music with Joe since 1999 and even fewer people have heard the demos from the early years. I’ve been pursuing Joe to rejoin halfwaynorth since 2007 and it took a little more than a year to convince him to move from Michigan. I’m positive school is the reason he is in Chicago but I like to tell myself that the real reason is halfwaynorth.

Happy birthday Joe!

— Jason Abraham