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Dan Raymond - Guitars and Vocals Lead singer and guitarist who's older than dirt ("How come I still ain't BIG after all this time?" he laments.) Started out in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as a lead singer in high school 60's cover bands (yeah, IN the 60's) and shortly after added guitar and/or bass to the vocals. Later, played in bands "while majoring in Partying" at Tulane University in New Orleans. "First thought I'd get BIG" in early 70's as an A&R rep and house songwriter for Aquilla Records (a Florida based sub-label of Playboy Records 'til Barbie Benton left Hugh Hefner so he dissolved the labels to spite her). In '75 he signed as an artist (half of the duo Nichols and Raymond) to Florida's Soul Deep Records and released one frustrating album on vinyl (remember that?). "The only thing I really liked about it was the Miami Philharmonic string section on some cuts (this was so long ago, samplers hadn't been invented yet!)... was sure we'd get BIG anyway, though," he sighs. The duo joined Florida/Baltimore based Mean Green as singers but "it was very short lived... too weird and too many drugs for my taste." Got fed up with Florida and moved to Colorado in '76 and played bass in Denver bands Breezin', Avalon and Double Take in dives all over Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and even Iowa and Utah. Then met the brilliant singer/songwriter/guitarist Don Murphy and drummer Lee Lawless and Loop-de-Loop was formed. "I was sure this one was gonna be REALLY BIG 'cause of Don Murphy, he's amazing". Oh, well, in the early 80's, after "Loop" broke up, Dan got into video and co-produced the local award winning The Rick Rock Show with Randy "Rick Rock" Hayes which appeared on cable and KBDI Channel 12 airing hundreds of local musicians. "Thought I'd get BIG another way," he muses. After Rick Rock ended he formed Rowdy Duty ("it was our duty to be rowdy") with Pete Ward, Steve Womacks and Dave Curtin to showcase his writing skills. "It started out great... we built Westmonster Recording Studio, one of the first ADAT studios anywhere and recorded a lots of stuff... thought we'd get BIG of course... but we had four quality songwriters and everyone wanted us to go in a different directions." So they did. Met bassist Gregory Morris and put together Happy Place which evolved into the current Shifty Gears after adding Mike Usrey on drums and vocals (the first 2 drummers dissolved into green slime ala Spinal Tap). Now with the addition of newest member, Brian Nutsch, killer guitarist, singer and songwriter, Dan is just sure that "Hey, THIS TIME we're gonna get REALLY BIG... really! It's true and ya know, I'm never wrong about these things!!!!"
Equipment: Dan plays a Fender Highway 1 American Stratocaster, Alvarez acoustic guitars (steel and nylon strings), a Fret-Light (Strat style) electric, a Gibson acoustic 12 string and a Washburn steel string acoustic. He plays mostly through a Johnson J-Station through a Fender Blues Jr. amp. He also adds a Morley Wah and a SansAmp stomp box for additional sounds.
Gregory Morris - Bass Guitars Gregory studied the bass under Michael Olson of Wind Machine fame. His other influences include Walter Becker of Steely Dan, Bill Hopkins of Firefall and Paul McCartney. Gregory was previously a member of Drift Jones. Equipment: Gregory uses a Carvin LB75A 50th Anniversary series five string bass, a Line 6 bass pod, and Monster cables. He also uses a Carvin R1000 head and depending on the situation a RL 410T or a RL 118T speaker cabinet. An Ibanez Axstar 5 String bass is used as backup. |
Brian Nutsch - Guitars and Vocals Brian began playing piano in the early sixties and guitar in the late sixties. He grew up in the small community of Fairbury, Nebraska where he helped form a short-lived band named Effigy. He then moved to Lincoln where he played in the band Stryder and then had a solo act playing mostly Bob Dylan and Neil Young covers. After acquiring a four-track tape deck in the early eighties he began to focus on writing and has been recording in various home studios over the years. He moved to Colorado in 1997 and soon found himself jamming with the guys in Unit M and, most recently, joining up with Shifty Gears. Early musical influences: Beethoven, The Beatles, Alvin Lee (Ten Years After) and Ritchie Blackmore. Equipment: Brian plays a 1973 Stratocaster, a 2001 Roland ready Stratocaster, an Ibanez hollow body jazz, an Ibanez Artstar, and a Martin D12-20 acoustic 12 string. He plays into a Roland VG88 VGuitar System or his Pod XT into a Marshall JCM 600 tube guitar amp. He also uses a Roland GR-33 guitar synth on occasion. |
Mike Usrey - Drums and Vocals Mike Usrey is a classically trained percussionist who began playing in elementary school. His biggest influences are Neil Peart, Cozy Powell, Buddy Rich, and Animal from The Muppet Show. In addition to Shifty Gears, Mike organizes the open mic at Cannon Mine coffee house and (along with Gene Merriman, Marc Landry and Rick Pruitt) hosts the blues jam at Dillinger's Food and Spirits. Prior to joining Shifty Gears, Mike was with the band RTD. Equipment: Mike plays a customized Roland V-drum kit (mounted on Gibraltar hardware) with a Roland PM-3 drum amplifier. For coffee shops and other time/space constrained situations, Mike uses a Roland multipad percussion controller (SPD-20) set up as a drum kit. He provides backup vocals through an Audio-Technica headset microphone. |
Shifty Gears has a complete PA and is happy to provide our own sound system, work with your sound system and staff, or combine systems as needed to provide the best results. The band PA has a 24 channel Behringer mixer with digital effects, a Bose top end amplifier and speakers with an efficient 500 watts of power, and a mixture of Bose and Carvin subs capable of up to 1250 watts of combined bass punch. The band uses Sennheiser microphones for vocals.