Introduction Video
Shadowfields is:
- Heather Humphrey - Lead Vocals, Piano, Flute, Harmonica, Percussion
- Tom McKeown - Lead Vocals, Guitars, Mandolins, Banjos, Keyboards, Drums, Percussion
- Jim Livas - Drums, Percussion
- Tony Meadors - Acoustic Upright and Electric Bass, Vocals
- Gary Jacklin - Violin, Vocals
The Early Years
Shadowfields (AKA Humphrey-McKeown) was originally conceived as a songwriting partnership to simply leave a legacy of songs that stated "This is who we are". From that small beginning the duo of Heather Humphrey and Tom McKeown spent the better part of five years writing for publishers and doing work for hire. They worked at combining Heather's innate melodic sesibilities, gleened from musical theater, with Tom's penchant for art-rock in search of the unexpected chord. A tall order for the prolific pair. After penning over one hundred songs for others, and never seeing the "big break" they longed for, they set their sites on writing for themselves again. After much persuasion, Tom convinced Heather that they should see how some of their music would go over with a live audience. That led to anxiety, arguments and the humble "open mic nite" at a few local venues. The reception was very encouraging and gave them even loftier ideas of recording themselves. Their first album "When The World Was Young" (2012) was a collection of songs written for various publishers (all of them rejected). It covered a wide variety of genres but even then, their acoustic singer-songwriter folk-rock tendencies started to appear. They released their music under their songwriting partnership name "Humphrey-McKeown". This was definately a duo in that Heather wrote most of the words and melodies and Tom played all the instruments and handled production duties. It was completely just the two of them, other than the mastering engineer brought in to correct any stray frequencies. Once released, they were happy to find some kindred spirits liked their home-grown music. Now, they needed a band. Most of the songs required a full rock band to recreate them live. Enter, drummer Jim Livas and a host of assorted members for concerts. At one point, the band had grown to a cumbersome eight members. Schedules and logistics became impossible over the next year and they decided to start over and streamline their sound. While all this was happening, Tom and Hetaher set out to release a second album on their own. "On My Way Home" (2013) contained forteen songs and spanned nearly an hour of new music and songs they had written for publishers. This time around though, they invited a few players to come in and add brass and woodwind parts to the song "I Wish It For You". Taking a cue from one of the reviews of the previous album, they began singing dual lead his/her vocals. This was to become their strongest asset and something they incorporated more and more over the next albums. Once again, they assembled a band, held rehearsals, and played concerts as often as possible. Late in 2013, Heather had asked to record a Christmas/Winter themed album based on lyrics she had been writing. Like the open mic nite of a few years earlier, this took some persuasion to get Tom on board. Finally relenting, they released "Winter's Hill in November 2013 and played a few duo and small ensemble shows to highlight the music over the holiday season. And then... it was time for a change.
Then and Now
Over the years, many players have become part of the Shadowfields (HM) family and moved on to other projects but after the release of their third album, "Winter's Hill, the duo set out to find the sound they were always striving for. Soon, they released all the band members and huddled back in the studio to create a masterpiece. This brought them to record "All I Wanted To Hear" in 2014 with a host of guest performers. Violin and accordion were added to their musical landscape and a new band slowly started forming. Near the end of the recording sessions, Tony Meadors (who had played with Jim Livas in a previous band) was brought in to add his bass to "Far Away". Jim was asked to add his drums to the song as well. "All I wanted To Hear" was the album that finally defined their course. Piano, bass, drums, violin and a host of stringed instruments became their sound. To play thier new songs, they knew they needed a full-time violinist and by 2016 Gary Jacklin had become the "right guy and the right time". They set out on the road, taking their new songs all across the midwest, Canada and the upper east coast. Friendships grew and a musical connection developed in a way that Tom and Heather knew it was the right time to do a proper "band" album. Once decided, they took to recording their first full album together "Tapestry of Shadows" (2017). This album featured a fuller sound and some harder hitting and more difficult to play material. It was good to be known as great songwriters but the band also wanted to be known as great musicians. "Tapestry of Shadows" proved that point and drove them to take it out on tour. This led to SXSW in Austin and Summerfest in Milwaukee and travels from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennesee, Missouri,Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ontario, New York, Ohio and back home again. Over 200 radio stations started picking up on this new Americana Swamp-Grass, Neo-Gypsy, Folk-Rock act. While on tour, Tom and Heather started writing material that would become the core of their sixth album "Festival For One". Writing and recording scratch tracks began in earnest in January of 2018. In April they made the hard decision to change the name from Humphrey-McKeown to Shadowfields. Probably long over-due. No one was ever quite sure if Humphrey-McKeown was a law firm or a band. Recording sessions began with Jim in May and Tony and Gary finished their parts in early 2019. Unlike any other album, Tom and Heather brought in 20 extra singers to perform as a choir on multiple songs. Once that was done, the daunting task of mixing began. Tom finished the mixes with Heather's help in mid April and mastering was completed on April 26 with a release date set for June 28. Radio station around the world were sent advanced copies for radio play and tracking. Tours have been planned.
...and the adventure continues...