Frank Shiner is a unique new singer whose vocals evoke a certain sound associated with the old school American Songbook era. But all comparisons end there, as is clearly evident on Shiner’s debut album, The Real Me, set for release on Bakerson/Pyramid Records, Universal Music Group on June 24th 2014.
The arc of Shiner’s musical artistry swings in that special place where his lifetime of experiences in singing and acting are able to breathe together and tell a story. Like the album’s title tune, the Doc Pomus/Dr. John masterpiece “The Real Me,” Shiner appreciates a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. “As a student of Shakespeare,” Shiner explains, “as a student of language, the song is a play, and the lyric is the most important thing to me. If a pretty sound comes out after that or along with that, it’s a bonus, never the goal.”
Shiner met the challenge of the recording process with the same straightforward resilience that sent him up to the bandstand during an open mic night at a small suburban nightspot in 2010. After half a lifetime of dreams deferred, Shiner’s mind was flooded with thoughts of his father telling him thirty years before, “Follow your heart.”
Shiner’s decision to chart a new course for the Standard Songbook follows through on the upcoming release. Many of the song selections on The Real Me have distinct blues overtones and are lyrically rooted in the generation that belongs to Paul Simon, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, and Randy Newman, just a few of the contemporary composers whose work is showcased on Shiner’s album.
The finishing touch is the deft studio mastery of producer Gary Katz, best known for his tasty work on the classic series of albums by Steely Dan, as well as landmark albums from Donald Fagen (The Nightfly), Laura Nyro and Joe Cocker amongst others.
With Katz establishing the well-crafted moods for which he is known, Shiner has succeeded in establishing himself as a modern singer in the genre of the Grobans and Bublés of the world. “The idea,” Shiner says, “was to combine the attitude and musical values of the music that inspired me – the era of Sinatra and Darin – with a more contemporary body of material.”
Yet it is a goal that Shiner accomplishes with an unexpected jazzy ease, from the deliciously simplicity of Elvis Costello’s “Almost Blue,” to his cool sexy rhythmical approach of Tom Waits’ “Temptation”. Shiner takes a romantic vocal approach to Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home,”
Jimmy Webb’s timeless “It’s a Sin (When You Love Somebody)” and Van Morrison’s overlooked song of eternal hope and yearning, “Brand New Day.” Shiner’s interpretation of the Roxy Music rarity “To Turn You On” and his sexy swing approach to Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man” are two of the album’s welcome surprises. A pair of tunes are drawn from Paul Simon’s blues-drenched One Trick Pony movie soundtrack, “Nobody” and “Long Long Day,” well-handled by Shiner and Katz. The repertoire for The Real Me was developed by Shiner and A&R veteran Mitchell Cohen (Columbia, Arista and Verve Records)
A number of tunes on the album are dedicated to Frank’s longtime love affair with his wife Suzanne – a fearless cancer survivor. Her bravery and encouragement led Shiner to follow his muse and rekindle his calling as a singer and actor that he had put on the back burner many years before, when he set out to provide for his young family. Recording these near-biographical songs was the realization of a dream that only resurfaced three years ago.
Shiner was recently introduced to audiences on the 2013 holiday single “Driving Home For Christmas” (also produced by Katz), a holiday evergreen from the pen of Chris Rea, the eclectic jazz and blues-influenced British singer-songwriter. The single hit Amazon’s Top 50 Song Chart with proceeds from iTunes and Amazon sales of the single being donated to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, the favorite charity of Shiner’s late father.
There is no overstating the influence that Shiner’s father Francis had on his son, growing up in rural Mountain Top, PA. Shiner calls the strappingly big man “my best friend, and the best man I’ve ever known…his story is a book in itself.” Home was isolated by hundreds of acres of woods, with scant radio or TV reception. Shiner, the baby of the family with three older sisters, recalls the simple pleasure of his father singing Vernon Dalhart’s country-western weeper “The Letter Edged in Black” to the four of them. “And the girls would just sit there and bawl. And then I would cry watching them cry. It wasn’t the song that got me as much as watching my sisters cry. I think that is when I learned just how powerful a lyric can be.”
Starting at age ten, Shiner worked side-by-side with his father in the family-owned bakery in Wilkes-Barre. (Hence, Bakerson Records!) The son soaked up business knowledge and sales sense from his father and mother. Into Catholic high school, ever the class clown, Shiner’s musical universe expanded. His teachers nurtured his musical talent in “seasonal singers and chorus,” and when Shiner was cast as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, “I finally felt at home, when I stood on that stage and heard the audience reaction, I said, ok this is what I want to do.”
When he arrived at Kings College, his practical side took over as a pre-law major, but was quickly scotched in favor of becoming a Theatre Arts major. Training in the classics (Molière, Shakespeare), “that’s where I really started to develop as an actor.” After graduating, he moved to NYC in 1982, six months later met Suzanne (who immigrated to NYC from Arkansas). They wed two years later.
Shiner quickly earned his SAG, AFTRA and Actors’ Equity cards. He played more than fifty theatre and television roles (As ‘Matthew Shiner’), including one musical for which he learned to play guitar as a country singer. Bartending helped pay the bills, as did a commission sales job. He eventually developed his own product invention and corporation.
With one child to raise and another on the way, Shiner decided to put his career on the back burner – where it would stay for two decades. “There were never any regrets”, as his company thrived, now with ninety employees and sales reps nationwide.
In 2009, Suzanne began a battle with cancer “a truly life altering experience that changes your perspective on everything.” The deepness of the couple’s relationship courses through nearly every song on The Real Me. Suzanne went through hell, which makes her prodding of her husband that night at the bandstand in 2010 even more moving and climactic. She pulled on his heartstrings saying it would bring her great joy if he would sing. Only that got him up on the bandstand. The bandleader rushed out to the parking lot afterwards to collar Shiner before he disappeared and went on to recruit him for months. One day he said “Frank, music heals the soul.” The singer finally took the advice to heart, with all that he and his wife were going through with her illness.
A few months later, Shiner lost his best friend when Francis passed away. At the funeral, the son was given his father’s wedding ring. At one of his first gigs, Shiner slipped on the ring along with his own, thinking it would give him strength. “From that point on I have worn both rings every time I sing, in remembrance of my father.”
“I go about life from my heart,” says Frank Shiner. “I love hard, I suffer from anger, I suffer from loving too much, I suffer from worry, but it’s all from my heart, it’s all real. Sometimes it’s a rollercoaster, but I don’t think you experience life without that part. A lot of people just kind of skip over the top of the water but I can’t. I gotta dive deep.” Frank Shiner wears his heart on his sleeve for all to see. And now, with The Real Me, for all to hear as well.
To celebrate the release of the CD, Shiner will perform at 54 Below in New York City on June 25th and at The Winery At St. George in Mohegan Lake, New York on July 8th. He will also be signing albums and performing songs from the upcoming release at Barnes & Noble in his hometown of Wilkes-Barre, PA on June 27th. The debut single from the album entitled “Feels Like Home” is currently Top 5 on the AC Radio Charts.