New Addiction: Nathan Sheppard

(Photo/Ziona Kocher)

I was sitting here at the desk listening to some of the recordings from the R.E.M. 30 event and I was struck by Sheppard’s vocal abilities. “He sounds just like Stipe here….wow…” The harmonies that he and John Keane created during “Swan Swan H” remain firmly in the top 3 performances of the night. So I wanted to find out more about this guy.

Turns out he and Keane have been performing together a lot lately. The duo usually pull out the acoustic guitars and play a few numbers in the smaller and more unusual venues around Athens. Sheppard’s solo stuff is a mix of pop singer-songwriter with a bit of folk rock thrown in. I wish that the audio available on his myspace were more than just brief snippets, they give you a decent sense of his stylings.

Sheppard is playing Boar’s Head this Friday.