Ex-Basin resident gears up for tour

MOSES LAKE - Nashville guitarist Shane Scheib has a few shows on his upcoming fall tour that he's especially looking forward to playing.

Scheib will perform at venues in Tennessee and New York before making his way to the Northwest, where his first show on this side of the country will be an Oct. 19 gig at the Soap Lake Businessman's Club.

From there, he'll head to Portland, Ore., and then back to Washington for shows in Spokane and Ellensburg, he said. Scheib rounds out his tour with performances in Montana and California.

But it's his Basin gigs that hold the most meaning, Scheib said.

"I was born in Pullman, lived in Ephrata until I was 3, went to grade school in Coulee City and then moved to Ellensburg when I was 12," he said.

Scheib said he began taking formal guitar lessons when he was 9 from an instructor in Hartline.

"I was so young, so lessons were always book one basics," he said. "But I'll never forget him letting me and a buddy borrow a couple electric guitars to play 'Jingle Bells' at the St. Andrew's Grange Christmas Program."

Scheib said he got another taste of performing in front of a crowd while growing up in the Basin. He and his older brother used to take clogging lessons in Ephrata a few nights a week, he said.

"We danced at fairs and competitions around Eastern Washington," he said. "Can't remember how to clog anymore, but it was great rhythm training and my first taste of being on stage."

Scheib continued to play the guitar over the years, joining a few bands along the way. He was in a band when he graduated from Central Washington University, he said.

"I moved to Portland with the band, but it eventually dissolved," he said. "I started working a 9 to 5, wearing a suit and tie, but left that after a couple of years."

Scheib joined a missionary organization and spent the next few years traveling the world.

"I traveled around the South Pacific," he said. "I played music, but that was secondary to the other stuff I was doing."

When Scheib left the organization, he went to work on a fishing boat in Alaska.

"There was an interesting skipper on the boat, he had been in Nashville for seven years as a songwriter and just retired back to Alaska," Scheib said. He then heard of a band in Knoxville, Tenn., that was looking for a guitar player.

"A mutual friend introduced us and I moved to Knoxville," he said. Scheib spent a year playing with that group before making the trek to Nashville.

"I initially was a guitar player for hire, but over the years transitioned into a full-time solo artist," he said. "My first goal was to jump on board with someone else but now I'm kind of doing it myself with a band that plays with me."

Scheib released his EP "Genrelicious" in 2010.

"It was a showcase of my guitar playing, that's how I was getting gigs," he said. "I did a lot of genres but now it's more Indie Pop and Indie Rock."

He released a single "Just Friends" back in April, which has been getting airplay on the radio in Nashville, Scheib said. The song's music video is currently in post-production, he said.

Scheib also released his most recent single, "Run!" in July, which is available on both iTunes and Amazon.

Scheib said he is glad he made the decision to move to Nashville.

"It's a great place to be for what I'm doing," he said. "It's tough because there are so many people in the same spot, doing the same thing, but at the same time there's so many resources and it's a really great showcase town."

For more information about Scheib's upcoming tour, or to listen to his music, visit www.shanescheib.com.