Born Shane Vincent Keenan on Friday,
May 11th, 1979 in Phoenix, AZ. Keenan would
spend the early years of his childhood living in the
Phoenix area but would quickly relocate to Austin, TX. It was in the live music
capital of the world that he would soon find his
direction in life. After seeing his classmates
bring their guitars to school, and being encouraged by
his father to listen to such rock icons as Eric Clapton,
Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, Keenan new what he
wanted to do with the rest of his life; play
guitar. He received his first guitar at the age
of 11 and briefly took lessons, but would remain
mostly self taught. It wasn't until moving to Murfreesboro, Tn to attend MTSU that Keenan would begin to seriously collaborate with other musicians. He would also be greatly challenged to not only become a better guitar player,
but also be a competent musician. It was upon meeting other future Judd
Hall members, Kevin Mabin and James Harrison in the Judd Hall dormitory that
Keenan would be thrust into a musical and social network that would help shape
his future. It wouldn't be long before Harrison, Mabin and Keenan would
all become staff musicians at Walnut Grove Missionary Baptist Church; a
position that they all hold to this day. It was also at this time that
all three musicians would find themselves playing for local Hip-Hop/Soul
artists Big Fella and Te' Arthur; a musical collaboration that found some
success locally but would begin to fall apart as tension caused members to
resign from the group.
Keenan, Mabin and Harrison would spend
the next decade moving in and out of dozens of bands; sometimes with each
other, and sometime on their own. Finally in 2011, upon being exposed to
the jam band world of keyboardist Jo Jo Hermann and Wide Spread Panic, drummer
Mabin approached Harrison with the idea of starting an original group with the
goal of entering the jam scene. Soon Keenan was asked to join the band,
an opportunity he could not pass up. Having built up a chemistry with
Mabin and Harrison over a 10 year period, Keenan saw this as an opportunity to
make the music he always wanted to make; a sentiment equally shared by the
other four band members.
It remains to be seen what will become
of Judd Hall, but the future is wide open. Keenan, and his band mates as
well are excited for what is yet to come.
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