Guitar wizard Sean Ashby plays Rhapsody Barrel Bar Thursday
KITCHENER — Guitar superhero Sean Ashby used to play 100 shows a year. Now he’s down to 85.
Ashby, originally from Thunder Bay, has played across Europe, Canada and the U.S.
One of his favourite places in the world is New York City. Hence the uptempo shout-out song/video “Always Belong in New York” from the acclaimed 2012 album “Fantastico.”
“It’s funny, because I am Canadian. I love Canada,” says Ashby. “It is the best country in the world but anybody who has ever been to New York will tell you that a piece of you remains there.
“It’s almost got nothing to do with ... well ... it has everything to with America but it is an amazing place to me. So much has come out of there especially in the art and music community or anything with entertainment.
“Anywhere in New York is cool like Red Hook (Brooklyn) and all of that,” says Ashby.
“I like to go there and walk up what I like to describe as canyons — the streets. There are so many skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. It feels like you are walking at the bottom of a canyon of skyscrapers. It is really incredible,” says Ashby, adding he has good memories of playing many late night TV circuit when he was touring with Sarah McLachlan as her guitarist on the original “Mirrorball,” “Afterglow” and “Lilith Fair” albums.
His solo guitar arrangement is also heard on McLachlan’s “Blackbird” for the 2001 drama “I am Sam.”
Ashby played Madison Square Garden five times with McLachlan, and Radio City Music Hall for the Grammys, where he got to hang out with Stevie Wonder backstage.
Ashby performed on late-night
variety shows Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live (where he watched comic fave Will Ferrell rehearse) plus David Letterman.
“I was at Letterman four times, once just hanging out with Sarah for moral support. During the commercial break, we played a Sarah song with Paul Shaffer and the Letterman band. Paul is also from Thunder Bay,” adds Ashby.
“We jammed with him and it was a blast,” he notes with a laugh. “That was a thrill for me because he is the most famous musician to come out of Thunder Bay that I can think of and I got to play with him!”
In addition to his music passion, Ashby is also an avid comic book collector and has recently added “Spiderman” comic collectibles (“Spiderman” 1 and 2), 30 1970s Meegos crochet creatures, plus four Spidey action figures to his inventory.
“It not because it is a big valuable collectible — it’s because I am obsessive,” laughs Ashby. “As a kid growing up in Thunder Bay I used to read the old comics and they all came out of New York!”
Through his career, Ashby has played in many music genres from the lush chamber pop of Delirium to the industrial sounds
of Front Line Assembly, and alt-indie tunes of Ginger (formerly Grapes of Wrath).
He was also the bandleader for West Coast rockers Jack Tripper, known for acclaimed 1999 CD debut “Jack Tripper” (1999) and 2002 followup “9 Easy Pieces.”
Ashby’s solo work includes “Sean Ashby Brass and Gold” (2008), “24 Hours of Daylight” (2010), “Fantastico” (2012), plus “Lodestone and Iron” and “Surf Guitar Smash Hits” (2015).
“Surf Guitar Smash Hits” includes all the classic surf guitar tunes (by Dick Dale, The Shadows, Duane Eddy) in addition to Ashby’s original song “Big Surfin’ Wave” and a retro-chic music video for The Ventures’ hit “Journey to the Stars.”
Ashby says the surf guitar sound is “guitar, amp and a bit of pedals.”
“Ideally, people would bring a tape delay. That is a technical thing to talk about but those are so fussy on the road that I cannot do that so I use a pedal,” he explains.
“In the studio, I would use tape to get closer to the original sound but I have to be honest. My take on a lot of the surf bands is to try to be very very traditional.
“I use the sound I normally have which is kind of surfy but I don’t get it super, super clean as they do. I have a couple of ounces of Neil Young or David Gilmour in my guitar sound,” he notes.
Ashby also likes to take a surf song and expand it with a searing guitar solo. He says most surf bands are very regimented and traditional but he likes to mix it up a bit.
“When I started doing surf music I was not aware of other surf bands other than The Ventures or the actual bands that had recorded in the first place. So I thought I would be a neat idea to take those tunes and tweak them a little — still very respectful to the originals but with just a little bit more grit in there.”
Ashby’s current axe arsenal features an acoustic, a British Burns Bison Surf Guitar (used by The Shadows) and three Gretsch guitars including a White Falcon, A Country Club, and Chet Adkins Nashville.
He does not always bring these guitars out on the road. For his show, he uses three Hawaiian guitars, two electrics (tuned “dramatically differently”) and one acoustic.
“I have another guitar which is a vintage 1951 Telecaster Nocaster. It’s a reissue and I am going to bring it on this tour. I have not brought it out for a few years. It is fun for me to bring different guitars,” notes Ashby, adding he also uses a looping pedal for studio-recorded drum beats, plus his own bass prerecorded tracks for his one-man band show.
When Ashby finishes this tour he’s heading home to record new music — one tune at a time to release on iTunes.
“I did five albums,” says Ashby. “The reality of it all is that the outlay of money to do an album is very great. I can do it one song at a time and then when I have 10 songs I can make an album,” he says, adding the music business is getting trickier and trickier since 2004.
So Ashby has supplemented his income. He sells reasonably priced merchandise including his albums in addition to black, old-time, star-speckled farmer’s tin mugs with his logo, and socks with the tour poster on them.
“I don’t believe people don’t listen to CDs. Even musicians say that!” he exclaims.
“I sold out of one album “Fantastico” halfway through my last tour. I had to ship out the same amount again and almost sold those out too,” he adds. “I think people are starting to buy CDs at shows and musicians make their money on merch. So I make merch!”