Wes Sharon

Wes Sharon
Wes Sharon
Background information
Born	(1970-01-23) January 23, 1970
Origin	Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Genres	Americana, Rock, Punk, Country
Occupation(s)	Musician, producer, recording engineer, studio owner
Instruments	Bass guitar, guitar
Years active	1983-present
Associated acts	John Fullbright, Turnpike Troubadours, Parker Millsap, Puller, Traindodge

Wes Sharon (born January 23, 1970, Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American musician and an award winning and Grammy nominated record producer and recording engineer.

Music career

Early years

Wes Sharon began his career in Oklahoma and Texas playing bass in alternative rock and punk bands. By his late teens he was being asked to produce sessions for other local bands and in 1994 he relocated to Cotati, CA where he became a staff recording engineer and producer at Prairie Sun Recording^[1] and had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of artists such as^[2]Remy Zero, Far (band), Simon Says (band), Gregg Allman, Wayne Perkins, Pat Travers, Rick Derringer, Tony MacAlpine, The Doobie Brothers, and Blag Dahlia & the Dwarves.^[3] Returning to Oklahoma^[4] he built his own facility and produced and engineered albums for artists such as Traindodge,^[5] Radial Spangle, Hurricane Jane,^[6] Charm Pops, Remember August,^[7] the Roustabouts,^[8] the Martini Kings and Smarty Pants.^[5] In recent years he has produced and/or engineered releases for John Fullbright, Turnpike Troubadours (2011 Lone Star Music New Artist of the Year and Best Album of the Year Award Winners), Ali Harter, The Damn Quails, Camille Harp (the 2011 Oklahoma Gazette Best in Country Award winner),^[1] Aranda (band), Parker Millsap, Jeremy Johnson & the Lonesome Few (2009 Oklahoma Gazette New Artist of the Year), and multiple albums with producer/singer/songwriter Mike McClure.

Current years

In 2012 Wes Sharon produced and engineered releases for artists as diverse as singer/songwriter John Fullbright (his full-length studio debut From The Ground Up on Blue Dirt/Thirty Tigers), Turnpike Troubadours (Goodbye Normal Street on Bossier City/Thirty Tigers, the highly anticipated follow up to the award winning Diamonds and Gasoline), Parker Millsap (w/ Michael Rose (bassist) on their debut full length PALISADE), Chad Sullins & The Last Call Coalition (Incommunicado, their first release for Smith Music Group) and an expansive acoustic based singer/songwriter compilation project released in three volumes entitled "Songs From The Alley.." for the JJ's Alley Records imprint.

The Turnpike Troubadours 2012 album Goodbye Normal Street was ranked as #1 in Lone Star Music's 100 Best Selling Albums of 2012. The album peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200.

John Fullbright's album From The Ground Up (produced by Wes Sharon and John Fullbright and recorded and mixed by Wes Sharon at 115 Recording) was nominated for Best Americana Album at the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards^[9] held on February 10, 2013.

Parker Millsap and Michael Rose's album PALISADE was named the Best Album of 2012 by the Oklahoma Gazette in their year's end "Tops of 12" issue.

Wes Sharon was nominated for Producer of the Year^[10] in the 2013 Lone Star Music Awards citing his work with The Turnpike Troubadours and John Fullbright.

The Turnpike Troubadours' Goodbye Normal Street (produced and engineered by Wes Sharon) won Album of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2013 Lone Star Music Awards. John Fullbright was awarded the Emerging Artist of the Year.

Wes Sharon and The Turnpike Troubadours were awarded the 2013 Single of the Year Award by Texas Regional Radio.

John Fullbright's album From The Ground Up was nominated for the 2013 Album of the Year Award by the Americana Music Association. Fullbright was also nominated for the 2013 Emerging Artist of the Year. The Americana Honors & Awards ceremony were held on September 18, 2013 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN.

Parker Millsap was nominated for the 2014 Emerging Artist of the Year by the Americana Music Association.

Wes Sharon was the bass player for Shoe Papa Blue, Angry Son, Burnwagon, Puller (band) and John Fullbright. He currently plays bass on various studio session dates.^[11] His playing can be heard on numerous albums including John Fullbright's albums "From The Ground Up" and "Songs", The Damn Quails' "Down The Hatch" and Ali Harter's "Near The Knuckle".

In 2016 Wes Sharon signed an endorsement deal with the legendary guitar pickup maker Larry DiMarzio and now uses DiMarzio bass pickups.

Wes Sharon produced, recorded and mixed the highly acclaimed debut solo album for Parker Millsap (released and distributed via Okrahoma/Thirty Tigers on February 4, 2014).^[12]

In October 2013 Wes Sharon began producing and engineering sessions for John Fullbright's highly anticipated and eagerly awaited follow up to "From The Ground Up". The album, titled "Songs",^[13] was released on Blue Dirt/Thirty Tigers on May 27, 2014.^[14]

In 2014 Wes Sharon produced, recorded and mixed an album for Texas singer/songwriter Troy Cartwright, the winner of the 25th annual B. W. Stevenson Songwriting Competition in Dallas, and the recipient of the 2014 Rising Star Texas Music Award. The album will be released in 2015 and distributed by RED/Sony.

In November 2014 Wes Sharon began producing sessions for The Grahams. Sharon is also engineering and mixing the full length. The album (featuring guest appearances by John Fullbright, Byron Berline and members of the Turnpike Troubadours) was released on May 19, 2015 on 12 South Records/RED and Sony (Australia).

In May 2015 Wes Sharon was asked to complete the recording and to mix the Turnpike Troubadours follow up to their album Goodbye Normal Street. The album, titled "The Turnpike Troubadours" (produced by guitarist Ryan Engleman and engineer Matt Wright), was released on September 18 of 2015 on Bossier City/Thirty Tigers and debuted at #3 on the Billboard Country Chart. In a Best of 2015 review Farce the Music stated, "There's space, separation, and vividness in the sound. The slower songs soar, the rockers punch, and there's fiddle and steel galore. On a good set of speakers, this thing is stunning."

Wes Sharon produced the debut, self-titled, solo release for Jared Deck. Its first single, "17 Miles", was debuted via Rolling Stone ^[15] and on the strength of that effort Deck was selected as one of Rolling Stone's 10 New Country Artists You Need To Know in March 2016.^[16] Of the experience Deck was quoted as saying, "Wes understands songs and the people who write them. He helped me find a voice I didn't know I had." The album is slated for release on May 6, 2016.

Wes Sharon was featured in the June 28, 2016 edition of The Daily Country. http://thedailycountry.com/interviews/qa-wes-sharon-the-grammy-nominated-producer-discusses-the-importance-of-listening-intently-his-app

Wes Sharon was featured in the August 8, 2016 edition of the Blugrass Situation in "The Producers". http://www.thebluegrasssituation.com/read/producers-wes-sharon

Wes Sharon was featured in the August 11, 2016 of NTown. http://www.normantranscript.com/ntown/mastermind-q-and-a-with-recording-s-wes-sharon/article_e4aebc8c-e648-505d-9cbd-b2850315bdbb.html

Wes Sharon was featured in the September, 2016 issue of Mix Magazine in the Profiles section. http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/wes-sharon/428264

Personal life

Wes Sharon owns and operates the audio recording facility 115 Recording (115recording.com) in Norman, Oklahoma where he lives with his wife and son.

References