Shawn Vreeland The High Country CD

The High Country is Sacramento-based guitarist-singer-songwriter Shawn Vreeland's long-awaited debut album. Combining well-crafted songs with an Americana/country tinge and impassioned jams, this CD will appeal to both jam-band fans and those who enjoy good songwriting. The CD features outstanding backing performances from members of The East Portal Express and Kate Gaffney as well as tasteful pedal steel work from Natan Rodriguez.Excerpt from from 11/29/07 Sacramento News and Review (CD release show):The band’s guitarist, Shawn Vreeland, was the focal point, and he’d step forward and launch into meaty solos heavy with hammer-ons and pull-offs, the kind my old pals with thick mustaches would call “tasty.”Vreeland's band, the East Portal Express, had a true jam-band flavor, with Alex Bohl on bass joined by Steve Bisel on keyboards, Evan Mahoney on mandolin, Natan Rodriguez on pedal steel and, occasionally, Joaquin McPeek on congas and Kate Gaffney (whose band closed the show) guesting on vocals. According to Bohl, the flavor of the band’s set typically changes from song to song, based on who wrote the tune, and some of that was in evidence Saturday—a song by Bisel had a funky, Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia feel, whereas one by Bohl was more strongly rooted in pop-music convention.But this was Vreeland’s night—a CD-release party for his new solo disc, The High Country. Thus, much of the music had a strong Southern-rock feeling, along the lines of the Marshall Tucker Band’s work, with Vreeland taking the Toy Caldwell parts on his Heritage Les Paul, and Mahoney doing a George McCorkle behind him on mandolin. The songs—like “Deep Magnolia River” and “Find Me an Angel”—also had that ring of familiarity; nothing new here, just well-worn ingredients served nicely.