Shane Parish

Guitarist Shane Parish writes tightly controlled, detail-heavy instrumental compositions that still make plenty of room for chance and experimentalism. He focused on leading his prog-punk improv band Ahleuchatistas throughout the 2000s, but drew considerable attention for his 2016 solo album Undertaker Please Drive Slow. Prolific and wide-ranging, Parish explores American Primitive fingerstyle playing, mathy dissonance, minimalism, and other abstract approaches to guitar on frequently released informal projects and more elaborately produced albums like 2022′s Liverpool.
Parish was born in Florida and began teaching himself how to play guitar at age 14. He settled in Asheville, North Carolina and in 2002 formed the frenetic punk-informed art rock trio Ahleuchatistas. Parish would be the only constant member of the group as they morphed over the years and established a presence in experimental circles with releases on Cuneiform Records and John Zorn’s Tzadik label. Concurrent with Ahleuchatistas, Parish was recording and performing solo and working as a guitar teacher. In 2015, he released Odei, a collection of atmospheric and thoughtful compositions and the first album released under his given name. 2016′s Undertaker Please Drive Slow was released on Tzadik and drew critical praise for its imaginative reinterpretation of acoustic fingerstyle guitar and folk-blues forms. Parish’s discography grew steadily from there, with frequent releases on various labels and collaborative albums with improvisers like Wendy Eisenberg, Tashi Dorji, Frank Rosaly, and others. Output took the form of limited-run cassettes, CDs, vinyl-only and digital-only albums, as well as more widely available work like 2020′s Way Haul Away and 2022′s sea shanty-inspired Liverpool. Around the beginning of the 2020s, Parish relocated to Athens, Georgia and continued working as a guitar instructor and musician. ~ Fred Thomas