Bill Shanley
Bill Shanley is one of Ireland’s top guitar players. His unique style of playing has kept him in good company and established him internationally through touring with and contributing to albums by Ray Davies, Mary Black, Paul Brady, Eleanor McEvoy, Roy Harper, Gilbert O Sullivan and many more.
He has acted as The Kinks Ray Davies sideman and musical director for over 12 years and most recently teamed up with Minneapolis alt‐rockers The Jayhawks on Ray’s last two critically acclaimed albums Americana Act 1 and Act 2.
Being an accompanist has always been of key interest to Bill, enjoying the great scope and limitless backdrop one can create for the artist he’s working with. This skill was commented on in a Financial Times review of a show at the Royal Albert Hall ‐ “Is there a finer sideman around? It’s unlikely…”
Co‐founding Cauldron Recording Studios in 2000 which successfully operated in Dublin for 18 years, Bill is a prolific producer on the Irish music scene, working with a wide range of new and established artists. He has released two solo albums to date, on his own Cauldron Music label, ‘Fingerpainting’ and more recently in 2019 ‘Midnight Mission’, described as “a potent display of technical wizardry and melodic compositional nous”.
