Golden Shelltoes is the first CD from Mc/singer/songwriter Ryan Greene, and it's been a long time coming. In 1996 while listening to all his own low fi recordings on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley he spotted a flyer that stated, "Rapper / Screamer wanted for rap/rock band!." He arrived to the audition, held in a firefighters´ garage in east Oakland, ready to rap and scream.. In 1996 the band finally named "Jalopy" consisted of drums, bass, guitar, DJ and Ryan on vocals. They played Rage Against the Machine covers and then progressed by rehearsing many original tunes with the aid of Ryans sophisticated arrangements and enthusiastic band leadership. After placing an ad in the SF Bay Guardian they landed DJ E da Boss (Blackalicious/ Gift of Gab) from New Jersey who had been in California for only one year. Lucky for the eager members of Jalopy their new DJ had been trained in turntablism and mixing by the 45 king (Queen Latifa) in the eighties in NJ. After two hours of auditioning E da Boss was in the band! The next time he showed up for practice he was whisked away to one of Jalopys many shows. Jalopy played at least once a week and rehearsed three times a week. After a few rock-based recording projects, they decided to lean more toward hip hop at Ryan's suggestion. While Ryan was used to recording songs in under an hour Jalopy's first professionally produced CD took almost a full year to record. The album was heavily influenced by Ryans old recordings and well-received by many listeners, including local Northern California club bookers and fellow musicians from the local scene. With their first 1,000 CDs ready to go Jalopy enlisted the help of 18 year old Candida Martinez (now one of the Bay's publicity powerhouses working with the North beach Jazz Festival, the Justice League, the Grammy committee) to manage them. With her at the helm they embarked on a tour of Northern California. Jalopys ex-members recall now there are only a small handful of Northern California clubs that they havent played in. In total, the band played over 250 gigs with Ryan as the band leader before breaking up in 1998. During Jalopys busiest months Ryan continued to work on various solo projects before and after rehearsals but it was Jalopys self titled album that years later would catch the ear of producer/musician Jason Stokes. This Grammy award winning engineer (Outkast, Goodie Mob, and many others) has helped produce many of Ryans current solo CD tunes. Jason has also, mixed, mastered and produced the debut album for the Oakland-based neo-soul / hip- hop band Ryan was also involved with; "Otis Goodnight". After three years as a front man with Otis Goodnight Ryan has opened for his longtime heroes Digital Underground and is focused on playing with musicians of that caliber from now on.The new live show for the project "Ryan Greene: Golden Shelltoes" will be an all-star line up if scheduling permits. The entire line up of the band was intended to reflect the local Bay Area hip hop scene that Ryan has associated himself with over the last 15 years while working and performing at various clubs big and small. The Emphasis is on showmanship and entertainment in the forms of hip hop, soul, funk, reggae, 60s rock and jazz.The following line up is the ideal situation schedules permitting: Drums: Max McVeety (Crown City Rockers) Bass: Chris Brown (New School, NY) Guitar/vocals: Paul Hunt (Espinosa) Keys/vocals: Keith P. (Felonious) Keys/sax: Joe Cohen (Shotgun Wedding Quintet) Vocals/ Raps/ frontman: Ryan Greene (Otis Goodnight, Jalopy) Hypeman/Vocals: MC Lexxx (Alphabet Soup) Many of the artist featured on the CD have been more than enthusiastic when asked if they would like to perform their own contributions from the album with Ryan at any live show. Those artists are as follows: Jern Eye (Lunar Heights) Azeem (Spearhead, DJ Zeph) Op (Greans Crew) Dublin (Shotgun Wedding Quintet, Jazz Mafia, Realistic Orchestra, Cannonball) Keith P (Felonious) Tre Beauchamp Jamie Hill (Producer of Psychokinetics) Hednodic (Crown City Rockers) DJ Platurn (Oakland Faders) Isaac (Digus) Bicasso DJ Zeph (Wide Hive) DJ Ill Media (Most Chill Slack Mob) The bass player/producer "Hednodic" from the Crown City Rockers has remixed a beat on the CD for Ryan. DJ Platurn from the Oakland Faders has also remixed one of Ryans beats . They Have been asked to DJ in between sets and play as turntablists with the band as well. We also have interest from DJ Zeph (Wide Hive). He would like to be considered for shows in the same way DJ Platurn or Hednodic would be. The CD song list/ Live set list is the focus of this show. Ryan Greene is the seasoned Arranger, Composer and Frontman for what promises to be a high spirited night of unity, balance and entertainment.
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